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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Ratheesh KrishnaVadhyar's LiveJournal:
| Sunday, May 11th, 2008 | |
| 9:39 pm | Kalyan Varma's Photography Workshop This weekend, I attended a photography workshop at Koramangala, organized by Kalyan Varma. I have been a very frequent visitor to his website http://www.kalyanvarma.net/ for quite some time now, and have been an admirer of the beautiful photographs that he captures from forests of South India. He quit from a safe and secure employment to do the job he likes - I don't think that many people would be able to take that step, howmuchever they wish for it. During the workshop I realized that he is a good teacher too. The workshop was quite useful. Yesterday there was a theory session, where some of the basics of photography were explained and then he went a bit into the details of white balance, exposure and histograms, and gave a few tips about composition, taking several famous photographs as example. Today morning we did some "field work" at Lal Bagh, followed by a session on various pre-processing techniques. Below are a few photographs I took from Lal Bagh today.       |
| Friday, May 2nd, 2008 | |
| 10:03 pm | "Nokku Kooli" !! In a recent edition of Malayala Manorama, I was amused to read CPM Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan's comments about "Nokku Kooli". Even though Nokku Kooli is a well-known practice in Kerala for many decades now, and has been filmed in numerous comedy films and portrayed by Toms in several Bobanum Moliyum comic strips, I was not aware that it has been officially assigned this interesting name of "Nokku Kooli". Actually I remember reading about this practice in the Kuttan Kandathum Kettathum comics by Krishnan, that was published in Mathrubhoomi weekly during the late 1970s, so I guess it was already a well-established custom that time. In Kerala, various Labor Unions have assumed these funny rights to receive payment for any sort of "loading and unloading" happening in the state, even if they haven't done any work. To quote from a Deccan Herald article, "It is the wage that has to be paid to the recognized trade union workers of an area when a person or organization loads material on to a vehicle or unloads with the help of friends or helpers instead of these workers. These wages are no pittance either, but often up to four times the normal wages laid out by the labor department. Those undertaking construction or moving household articles while shifting their lodging and companies have no choice but to pay up. .. The rational behind this strange practice is that only the unions have the right to load or unload material. As such, they should be paid even if they did not take up the work.", and that is exactly Nokku Kooli, which literally means "Fees for Observing". I wonder if any similar interesting practice has ever been followed by any other civilization of the World for such a long period of time. |
| Sunday, April 27th, 2008 | |
| 8:32 pm | We had gone to Irinjalakuda to attend the Koodalmanikyam temple festival. I was all excited to go for the festival until last Wednesday, when I heard the news about the unfortunate incident at the temple - An elephant had gone berserk and killed 3 people during the festival. Even though elephants have been creating mischiefs at the temple during the festival every year, I think this is the first time that someone is getting killed during the incident. The thought that the calm and quiet premises of Koodalmanikyam temple, that have always been an embodiment of sanctity, were to be the stage for such tragic happenings made me feel more depressed. I had booked train tickets long back, and decided to go, anyways. I forgot to take my identity card as required for the e-ticket, and hence ended up paying extra money for the travel. The journey was okay, but I felt the heat as unbearable at Irinjalakuda. I watched the Sheeveli on Friday and Saturday, and I felt that yesterday's Melam was good. Crowd was less, perhaps due to Wednesday's tragedy (There were no elaborate functions on Thursday, and even on Friday the procession was conducted with less number of elephants). Today is Pallivetta, but we returned yesterday evening itself, as we didn't get tickets for today evening. On Friday afternoon, someone pressed the calling bell at home and I opened the door to find an old man with white beard and twirled mustaches, clad in old dirty clothes standing outside. He stared at me. I thought that he might be a beggar, and stood for a minute with a questioning and somewhat unfriendly expression. Then my mother told, "He is Kumaran, Don't you remember him?". He was the person who used to climb the coconut trees in our land (there are only two trees, apparently). I was seeing him after many years, and I found that he has changed a lot with age. It seems he has been insisting on climbing the trees himself in spite of his age until an year back, and had become very upset when my father suggested him to retire. Nowadays, another guy called Hari climbs our trees but Kumaran visits us occasionally. He talked to me for a few minutes when I stood there sadly, remembering about old days. Mother gave him "Vishu Kaineettam", he said "Kumaran potte..tto" just as he used to say during those days, and walked away. |
| Thursday, April 24th, 2008 | |
| 1:35 pm | La Terra Trema Luchino Visconti's La Terra Trema (1948) is a touching film showing the tragic story of a poor family at the fishing village of Trezza in Sicily. The family includes Ntoni and Cola, two young men, their mother and siblings, and 70-year old grandfather, all living in a dilapidated little house near the seashore. Fishing is the only source of income for them. They work hard during nights at the sea, but the fishes they catch are bought by wholesale dealers for very cheap prices and so they end up with having just enough money for their survival. The wholesale dealers own all the boats and have a monopoly over the fish markets, and they treat their employees, the fishermen, like slaves. But Ntoni, who has just returned from a military service, is a man with revolutionary ideas. He decides to buy a ship and do the business on his own, instead of working for the wholesale dealers. He convinces his family to mortgage their house - the only asset they have - for starting their own business. They buy a small boat, and the family starts going for fishing on their own boat. They get a good catch initially, and start dreaming of happy days ahead. But tragedy strikes as the boat is partly destroyed in a bad storm. The bank takes away their house as they are unable to pay back the loan. Ntoni and Cola are jobless now, and the other fishermen, who had been jealous of them, would be only happy to see them on the roads. The wholesale dealers make fun on them. Bad things come all together, and the family goes through a sequence of tragic events. In the end, Ntoni decides to take a job with the wholesale dealers again, with his revolution still burning deep in his eyes, beneath the ashes of depression. We know that he hasn't succeeded, but we get a feeling that he hasn't failed either. La Terra Trema was made 60 years back, and watching it today would make us feel that its storyline is very predictable. When Ntoni decides to buy a boat, and when we see his sister going to buy salt for applying on the fish, we get a feeling that they are not going to succeed. We could sense the imminent tragedy at many other instances in the film. But this predictability doesn't diminish the appeal of the film; instead I felt that it makes the film more touching. That could be perhaps because the film is portrayed so realistically, with performances that are so natural (In fact, the film is picturized with real life Sicilian residents playing the characters). |
| Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 | |
| 9:05 pm | Manik Bandyopadhyay's Stories I had enjoyed the translation of Manik Bandyopadhyay's Bengali novel Putul Nacher Itikatha which I had read a few years back. Later I bought two books by Manik Bandyopadhyay, both collections of his stories. But I got a chance to read one of them only this week. This collection of 16 stories, along with few reviews, commentaries and articles, is published by Thema, Kolkata. The stories are translated to English by various writers, and edited by Malini Bhattacharya. One common element in all these stories is that the characters in them are far from idealistic. An poor man who prefers to sit at home and torture his family members than to go for any work, a thief who burns the house of his helper, a widow who tries to attract a well-to-do man for becoming more prosperous, a woman who tries to murder her sister - These are the main characters in some of these stories. Too much of white would make fiction look unrealistic, though too much of black would perhaps not; But I felt that the stories don't really rise above the portrayal of ordinary lives of these characters. They didn't inspire me; Actually, I felt that they were too depressive. Even though I liked the narrative structure used by the author in the stories, I doubt if I would enjoy reading any of these stories for a second time. |
| Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 | |
| 10:36 pm | Katha Parayumbol The Malayalam film Katha Parayumbol tells a simple story. Balan (Sreenivasan) is a barber living in a remote Kerala village. His business is not going well, and a modern beauty parlor has started its operations close to his shop, and has taken away most of his business. He couldn't even provide replacements for the clay pots in the kitchen that his wife (Meena) keeps on breaking everyday. His children couldn't pay school fees. One fine day, the sleepy village wakes up as the news reaches that a film is being picturized in the village, with superstar Ashok Raj (Mammootty) playing the hero. Balan casually mentions to his children that Ashok Raj had been his childhood friend, even though they have never been in touch after their schooldays. Balan is so sure that the famous star wont be remembering him, or even if he does remember, he wont like being called as a friend of an ordinary villager. But, through the children, this news leaks out and then Balan's image in the village transforms instantaneously. He is regarded as an important man then onwards, and people surround him to take his help for getting in touch with the superstar for various purposes. His life would never be the same again. Sreenivasan used to make great satirical movies once upon a time. I think his classic scripts, Sandesham, Vadakkunokkiyanthram and Varavelppu, all memorably picturized by Sathyan Anthikkad or Sreenivasan himself, would be remembered as long as people watch movies in Kerala. But, last few years, his films have been showing a constant downtrend and what we see in Katha Parayumbol is a Sreenivasan who is not even a mere shadow of the veteran writer of the 1990s. The plot is pretty thin and goes in an entirely predictable line, but that shouldn't have been a problem if the presentation was not so pathetically clichéd. Srinivasan's characters always had light shades of caricatures, but in this film, they just remain as cartoon characters - be it the beauty parlor owner played by Jagadeesh or the rich man played by Innocent or the production executive played by Suraj Venjaramoodu (who keeps on irritating me in almost every Malayalam film these days) - and still they fail to make us laugh. In fact, throughout the entire movie, I didn't feel like even smiling once. The dialogues and scenes from the King of Satire don't even reach the standards of a drama in School Youth Festival competitions. Balan's wife's (Meena, who is a total misfit for that role, though it doesn't really matter) pongachcham in front of the neighbors, his daughter's dialogue that "her ambition is not to become engineer or doctor, but to become a student who is able to pay her fees regularly", the tuition-center owner's (Mukesh) tricks to extract the pending payments from his students - these are supposed to be the key "satirical comedy scenes" in the film!! Near the climax, Sreenivasan tries to bring some feel-good element in the film, by showing the super star's emotional public speech at a school function, in which he remembers his old friend who had helped and inspired him during his childhood, and thus giving an illustration on how people can reach the heights of success and still keep the old days in their hearts. In spite of being a below-average film from Sreenivasan, Katha Parayumbol is actually better than many of the intolerable Malayalam films like Roudram, Kangaroo and College Kumaran that were made recently, and perhaps that is the reason for its popularity. |
| Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 | |
| 9:03 pm | The Alchemist Paulo Coelho's book The Alchemist, an International best-seller, has been with me for many years now; But it was only recently that I read it. However, I have read many of the curious sentences and phrases in this book earlier, like "When you really want something, the entire Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it", which I think is the most famous one. Many such sentences in this book are very popular slogans which have been used in email signatures by many people. In fact, people had run out of such curious statements that they had started looking for lesser ones like " "Let's sell tea to the people who climb the hill" -- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist", etc., and I used to think that they were densely meaningful in the context of the story told in the book. The Alchemist starts as a very readable and interesting folktale. A shepherd of Spain dreams of a treasure near the Pyramids, and a strange man - actually, a king - whom he meets, inspires him to follow his dream and reach his destiny. The king also gives him a few tips about following the omens. The shepherd sells all his sheep and starts for Egypt. On the way, his money is stolen and he is forced to halt at a coastal town for nearly an year to make money for further travel. I found the book to be interesting till this point, but soon the author steps aside from the framework of a fable. What we see later is that the story goes into background and a repetition of the phrases about dreams, destiny, omens, beginner's luck, love, language of the heart, soul of the heart, heart of the soul, soul of the universe and many such similar things occupy most of the pages, which left me confused regarding what the author is trying to say. These sort of keywords make the book appear like having several deep philosophical meanings in it, and I could see shades of teachings from many world religions in many passages (like seeing the entire universe in a grain of sand, soul of the heart becoming a part of soul of Universe (?), the Buddhist outlook about suffering, etc.). But I felt that these passages are open to several interpretations, none of which have anything thought-provokingly novel in them. In the end, the shepherd returns to the place where he had had his dream - apparently, the treasure was at that location itself, and he has been searching for it all around. If taken as a simple story, I couldn't appreciate Alchemist much - In fact I felt it to be a tiring read. If taken as a work on spirituality, it lacks the clarity of expression which I believe is a must for such works. |
| Monday, April 7th, 2008 | |
| 8:24 pm | Bannerghatta  Yesterday we visited Bannerghatta to watch the caged animals there. The zoo was crowded, in fact the crowd was much more than that seen at Lal Bagh. During lunch time, we found people roaming around, hunting for a place to sit and have their food. The animals would probably be feeling horrible in the middle of all this noise; Or probably not - Probably they might have got used to the humans, as we saw in the 1-hour trip through the National Park which they call as "Safari" - There were tigers and bears relaxing in the roadside like tamed animals. In fact, the bears came running near the bus and they even knew where the door of the vehicle was located. They stood there sniffing for a few moments, expecting to be fed. In the afternoon, we met one monkey in the open area who was interested only in "fruit juices". Some people offered him biscuits, and he payed no attention. The moment he sees someone taking out a fruit juice pack, he approaches them screaming. And if he gets a pack, he opens it systematically and drinks from it.  |
| Monday, March 31st, 2008 | |
| 8:09 pm | Chandamama Magazine, one of the best things that happened in Children's Literature in Post-Independence India, has started an archive service at their website that hosts old copies of the Magazine, at http://www.chandamama.com/content/story_ I think this is a wonderful gesture from the makers of Chandamama! I hope they would publish a collection of the old books in a print form sometime soon. |
| Sunday, March 30th, 2008 | |
| 8:51 pm | The Shop on Main Street Czechoslovakian film The Shop on Main Street (1965) is one of the finest films I have ever seen. It shows the brutalities and darkness of the Holocaust, without showing many explicit scenes of violence, and then it transcends to a different level and gives a brilliant portrayal of a man's moral dilemma regarding whether to save his own life, or to attempt to save someone else's, putting his own life at risk. The film is set in Slovakia during the times of the Second World War. Tono is a somewhat lazy and unambitious man living in the town. He is a carpenter, but doesn't have much work to do in general, and has a nagging wife and a successful brother-in-law to complete the picture. His brother-in-law is a military officer in the Nazi army who finds it amusing to show off his prominence in front of Tono and his wife. As part of this, he displays his kindheartedness by providing a job for Tono - He is assigned as the "Aryan Manager" for a button shop owned by a Jew. Nazi authorities had given a ruling that Jews are not supposed to own any shops, and hence they were assigning these kinds of Aryan Managers for shops owed by Jews. Tono's wife is happy to see the new-found status of her husband. The film looked like a satire until now but then it takes a turn when Tono goes to the button shop for the first time. He finds that the owner of the shop is a very old lady, who cant hear properly. She is living alone in a room which is behind her shop, and is supported by a few kind men of the Jewish community. The button shop gets hardly any customers and there is nothing much from the shop to call as an income. On top of that, the old woman is totally ignorant of the happenings of the World and Tono is unable to convey her about the purpose of his visit to the shop; She thinks that he is a customer. A Jew sympathizer meets him later, and they come to an agreement: Tono would stay at the shop as a "helper" for the old lady, and he would get a small salary from the Jewish community, who have been helping the old lady. Tono is happy with this arrangement. Tono comes to the shop every morning, spends his time repairing some old furniture at the woman's home and listening to the stories about the woman's dead husband and children living at far-away places. The lady finds a good listener in Tono; She starts treating him like a son, cooking his favorite dishes and giving him her husband's old clothes, and forgiving him for the mistakes he does while servicing occasional customers. As days pass by, Tono develops a great affection for the kind lady and when he comes to know that all Jews would soon be asked to evacuate from the town to go to an unknown destiny, he decides to protect the old lady. On the crucial day, when the Nazi authorities assemble in front of the "Victory Tower" just in front of the button shop, and start calling out the names of all the Jews in the town, Tono asks the lady to sit quietly in her room. He eventually is having to threaten the lady, as she is totally confused regarding the situation. She misunderstands Tono's intentions, thinking that he is drunk and is having evil purposes in his mind. Tono sits in the shop with his fingers crossed. It appears that the Nazis missed the lady's name! But he is soon overpowered by another thought - A Jew sympathizer will get a worse punishment than the Jews themselves; So, what will happen if the authorities later discover his role in helping the old lady? As the conflict in his mind intensifies, he attempts to do something exactly opposite to what his conscience had led him to do so far - He tries to force the lady to surrender! Then follows a contest between his conscience and practical-mind which eventually takes the movie to its powerful and touching climax (Actually I felt that the last scenes in the film were a kind of an anticlimax, and the film should have ended at the place where they show the old woman's fate). |
| Monday, March 24th, 2008 | |
| 8:50 am | La Strada Fellini's La Strada starts on a seashore. Children of a poor family are playing there, when Gelsomina, the eldest among them, is called by their mother. Rosa, the elder sister of all, had been away with a traveling circus-man named Zampano (Anthony Quinn), and he has just arrived with the sad news of Rosa's death. The mother is practical at the time of grief, and she is trying to convince Zampano that Gelsomina would be a good replacement for her sister. She inspires Gelsomina too, giving a pretty picture to her about her possible life as a traveling artist earning money and seeing places. After a bit of talk, Zampano pays some money to the mother and takes Gelsomina with him. Gelsomina soon realizes that her future is not going to be very promising with Zampano, a cruel man who almost looks like a unidimensional character in the beginning, who would consider her as nothing but a slave. But perhaps she is too innocent to even accept her realization. She is an embodiment of love and innocence, who is easily attracted by simple beauty and music of her surroundings that would help her to distract herself from her own feelings of loneliness and states of miseries within no time, every time she gets into one. She looks a bit abnormal at times (a character asks her once, "Are you really a woman? You look like an artichoke!"), and a constant question that alerts her is, "Why was I born?". Gelsomina thinks that Zampano has a little love for her at a corner of his heart, but for Zampano she is just a silly useless girl, and he has no time to listen to her problems or to hear about the tomatoes she plants at their temporary homes. As the story progresses, we see Gelsomina trying, though very passively, to make a good man out of Zampano, at least by raising her feeble protest while he tries to indulge in many of his amusements, like stealing from a convent which had given shelter to them one evening. Slowly, Gelsomina's presence becomes a bit of annoyance for Zampano, who discovers his own conscience in her, without his knowledge of course. The film goes through various incidents, at the end of which Zampano murders another circus-man (named "Fool") whom he had found as irritating. This was the limit for Gelsomina who then onwards keeps muttering about "Fool's injury" as if in a trance. Zampano decides to abandon her at a remote place. So far in the film, Fellini had been giving a great emphasis on the contrast between the characters of Zampano and Gelsomina. The viewer has all his sympathy and affection for Gelsomina, and surprisingly, we wouldn't feel any bitterness Zampano the villain, may be because we know of Gelsomina's love for him and we expect some sort of redemption for him. The first sign of Zampano's change is shown in his last scene with Gelsomina when he is about to leave her - He places her favorite musical instrument besides her, who is deep in sleep. Fellini then cuts to several years later, and we see Zampano still being haunted by the memories of Gelsomina which have become more intense by now. A music he hears from wayside makes him hunt for its source, and he learns that Gelsomina is dead. He approaches the calm seashore and cries down clasping the sand below, in a brilliant climax scene, and his change is complete. We can perhaps generalize Zampano's story and tell that La Strada is a film which believes in the essential goodness in every human being. As an individual's story, the film stands out as a moving artwork too. Among all the Fellini films that I have watched so far, I find La Strada and Amarcord as the finest. |
| Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 | |
| 8:16 pm | Five Mystery Stories In order to have a little fun reading some good children's literature, I tried to read a book Five Mystery Stories, a collection of five short novels written by Nilima Sinha, published by Children's Book Trust. I have read a similar book by CBT earlier, which I had enjoyed. But Five Mystery Stories was a major disappointment, and instead of providing entertainment, the stories in this book just bored me a lot and I stopped reading it after the first two novels. The characters have no originality, the plot just looks like cooked up for the sake of it, the narration is pathetic, and overall I felt very disappointed with CBT's selection of publishing this book for children. |
| Monday, March 17th, 2008 | |
| 8:19 pm | Tirupathi and Kalahasthi We had a visit to Tirupathi this weekend. This was my first visit to the Lord Venkateshwara temple - It was a long pending trip, which I had to postpone many times because of various reasons. We took the three-day package from KSTDC and started on Friday (March 14) evening (KSTDC likes to maximize the number of days in their packages as they appear in their pamphlet. For example, if a tour starts from Bangalore at 10PM on the first day and reaches back at 5AM on the third day, they would still insist on calling it as a "3-day tour package"). We were supposed to start at 7PM, but four of the passengers were stuck in traffic jam and were unable to reach the KSTDC office at Badami House, from where the bus started, by 7. They called the KSTDC office and requested to wait for them, so it was 8:15PM by the time we started. The bus was comfortable; The only inconvenience I had was that my seat was positioned in a very awkward location in the first row, just near the door, and I had to fold and bend my legs every now and then to make way for other passengers getting in and out throughout the trip. It took an hour for us to come out of Bangalore city. We had a break for dinner at Kamat Upachar restaurant (the food there was just okay) after Hosakote at 10PM. After a smooth journey, we reached Tirupathi at 2AM. We were provided accommodation at Ramee Guestline hotel. Since my experiences with accommodation provided by KSTDC in my earlier trips with them were not that good, I was prejudiced against this one too, but Guestline turned out to be a decent one. We were asked to get ready by 3AM. Thankfully, there was hot water available in the hotel that time. After taking bath, etc., we were ready by 3, and then went to Tirumala Devasthanams counter for taking the passes for entering the temple. The token counters open at 5AM only, but it seems people wait there in queue from 12AM itself. When we reached there, we could see some 20-30 people "sleeping in the queue". There are separate queues for "free darshana" and "special darshana", for which we have to pay 50 rupees. We joined the queue for special darshana. Sharp at 5, the counter opened and after taking our thumb impression, passes (called "Sudarsanam Token") were issued to us. We got our tokens within fifteen minutes. The Sudarsanam Token has three parts - one is for entry to the temple, second is for the laddoo prasadam, and the third is for the free meals at the temple, which is served from 9AM to 11AM. The tokens are not issued on top of Tirumala, so the devotees who want to take a second darshana have to come down and take the pass again (I don't know if there is some other method to enter the temple, by offering special puja, etc.). It seems this is designed like this to control the enormous number of devotees who otherwise would have camped on top of the hill for repeated darshanas. The KSTDC tourist bus wouldn't go to the top of Tirumala; So an APSRTC bus was arranged for our commutation to the hilltop. It arrived at 5:30AM, and we reached Tirumala bus stand at 6:30, after a scary ride through several hairpin drives. I was half asleep during the bus-ride, but at some point of time when I opened my eyes, I could see the symbol of Lord Venkateshwara - The shape of the special signature thilaka on his forehead with images of chakra and shankha on both sides, installed on top of one of the hills surrounding the temple, illuminated with several fluorescent lamps. The huge symbol looked magnificent as it stood on the peak of the hill, and the white rays emanating from it, breaking the pre-dawn darkness, added a special glow to it. In the tokens we got, our reporting time was given as 8AM, so we had plenty of time with us. Our KSTDC tourist guide advised us to take breakfast from the shops near the bus stand. There were quite a few small shops in the TTD tourist complex, selling hot breakfast. We went to an elderly lady, who was serving idli-vada for 10 rupees per plate. She was showing great efficiency, managing the preparation of the food, serving it and collecting money. The customers have to collect idli-vada or dosa from her, and then serve sambar or chutney from large steel buckets kept on one side, and then eat the food standing at any place nearby which they found convenient. There were flies near the shop, but I assured myself thinking that the food looked hot and so it would be safe. Indeed, the soft, cream-white, steaming idlis, crisp brown vadas and sambar were all very hot, and they were homely and delicious too, along with the coconut chutney. I just wished that she should have used banana leaf instead of thin plastic sheet to cover plates, to help it from getting oily. At 7:30, we started walking to the temple, which is just 5 minute walk from the bus stand. There are several "waiting rooms" for the devotees, and we all went and sat in one room. These rooms are all built as part of some sort of an amphitheater. Television sets are installed in each room, showing programs related to various ceremonies in the temple. On one side of the room, there is a locked iron gate, and we all waited there anxiously for the door to open, which would signal our further advance into the temple. At some point of time, I slumped into sleep, but soon I woke up hearing the sound of an earthquake -The sound of all devotees in our room rushing to the door, responding to the sound of the iron doors opening. We also wanted to run, in order not to fall behind. The next moment, we realized that there was some confusion, as the door in the room looked closed as it was before. Apparently, what got opened was the door of room number one, which was on our right side. It wasn't occupied by anyone, so we were thinking that it was unused. In an amazing display of spiritual effervescence, all the devotees made an about-turn, and started frantically jumping over the chairs to run to the other room. We quickly moved to one corner to avoid injury. After a few minutes, we also ran to the other room, to join the others in the queue that had developed outside. If we had thought that everything would go in an orderly fashion once those high-voltage devotees had made their way, we were mistaken; Many more people pushed us and overtook us in the queue to meet their urgent appointments with the Lord, and by the time we reached the main entrance of the temple, there was a major chaos. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait for too long near the entrance, and were allowed to go inside at 9:30. The situation of the queue inside the temple was much better, even though in front of the beautiful sacred sanctum, things were difficult again. The TTD employees were standing there and pushing the devotees, asking them to hurry up. But we somehow managed to stick around in front of the Lord's idol for a minute and have the darshana peacefully amidst the rush and push. Then we relaxed for a few minutes sitting near the sanctum, and after taking a pradakshina around it, and eating the prasada (tasty tamarind rice that was served in leaf cups), we came out of the temple. We went to the laddoo counter, to collect our laddoos. Even though I had eaten the famous Tirupathi laddoos several times before, I had never eaten it so fresh. I ate a piece from one laddoo, and then I couldn't control myself until I finished one completely. Our tourist guide had asked us not to go for the "free meals" as he said that it may get delayed and break the time-table of the tour package. So, we went back to the Tirumala bus stand after doing some minor shopping. Our Guide was waiting there for us (it seems every other passenger in our bus had come back already). I think there were a hundred hairpin drives on the downhill trip, and the APSRTC drivers would be having "nerves of steal" to drive at such a high speed through the sharp turns, even though it would be a routine work for them. The APSRTC bus dropped us at Kapila Theertha, an ancient temple at Tirupathi. Our guide told us that this is one of the most ancient temples of Tirupathi, though most of the temple structure has been renovated, except for the shikhara of the sanctum. It seems the Archeology department hasn't yet identified the exact age of this structure, and they wouldn't allow for its renovation. We were given twenty minutes at Kapila Theertha, which was just enough to have a quick run around the temple. Our KSTDC bus came to pick us up from there, and then took us to the Sri Kalyana Venkateshwara temple at a village called Srinivasa Mangapuram, 12Km from Tirupathi. There was no rush at this temple. We could have the darshana quickly, and got another cup of Tamarind rice from there. We returned to Tirupathi town, and after a disappointing and expensive lunch (I think Bhima Paradise was that restaurant) we went to Alamelu Mangapuram, to visit the Padmavati temple. It took an hour for us here to get the darshana. I was in a half-asleep state by the time we came out of the temple, and was happy to hear from the Guide that the day's programs were over. We reached our room at 4PM and I had a sound sleep.  On Sunday, we were asked to get ready at 5AM. We reached Govindarajaswami Temple by 5:30. Located in the center of Tirupathi town, this temple is dedicated to Govindarajaswami, the elder brother of Lord Venkateshwara, and the huge idol in the sanctum is in a reclining position. The temple itself is vast, and has several smaller temples inside the main compound, dedicated to various other deities. The gopuram of the temple is the tallest among all the temples we visited at Tirupathi, and the multiple granite walls surrounding the temple have engravings in Telugu (?) and Tamil. We had to rush through the temple, as there were parking restrictions near the temple starting from 6AM and we were asked to come back to our bus before that. An hour drive, and then we reached Kalahasthi, the next temple in our itinerary. Kalahasthi is one of the holiest places for Hindus, and it is given various titles like Dakshina Kasi, Dakshina Kailasa, and so on. The place is named after Sri the spider, Kala the serpent and Hasthi the elephant, who were all devotees of Shiva and achieved salvation through their innocent devotion, and the Linga inside the Kalahastheeswara temple has elephant tusks on its both sides, a serpent's image on its top, and a spider on its base. There are several other legends associated with the place, and the beautiful story of Kannappa's devotion is just one among them. Also, at this temple the lord is worshiped as an embodiment of Vayu among the Panchabhoothas, and it seems the lamps inside the sanctum never stop flickering. We could see a tall gopuram as we approach Kalahasthi, but apparently this structure just serves as a landmark, and it is not an entrance to the temple. The temple complex is on the left side of the gopuram as we approach towards it from the main road, and it covers a vast area, with several smaller temples inside it. Many Lingas, said to be installed by other Gods and mythological and historical characters are located at various places inside the temple complex. There is also a Linga made of sphatika (glass), which said to be installed by Adi Shankaracharya, and is one among only two in its kind (the other one being at Rameshwaram). After the darshana, we came out and purchased some vadas from the temple counter, which were sold as prasadam. They were tasty, and since I was hungry, I soon finished two of them. We could see a long queue in front of the Pathala Vinayaka temple which is outside the inner temple compound. The sanctum of this temple is in an underground chamber, and only a few people are allowed to go inside at a time. We decided to just offer our prayers standing outside, and then went to Vishwanatha temple, which is close-by. I was amused to see a tall, strange-looking granite statue kept near the entrance of this temple - The statue of a man in sitting position, who has some sort of a Chinese-style beard and a peculiar turban. I could not make a guess on who he could be!  View from the Road to Tirupathi We later had breakfast at a nearby Swarna restaurant that was recommended by our tourist guide, and then roamed around for a while. The temple is situated in a picturesque landscape in the middle of two small hills (one is named after Kannappa), near the banks of a calm and beautiful river, the holy Swarnamukhi, which unfortunately looks like has become a place for dumping garbage now. A snake-charmer who moves around with a bleeding cobra that tried to raise its hood with great difficulty arousing pity, children begging for alms, saffron-clad bearded men who look mysterious, mahout of the temple elephant (?) making the animal bless the devotees for a small fee, pushcarts filled with tender coconut covered with flies, numerous foot-path shops managed by women, selling idli and dosas - The surroundings of the temple show us multitude of characters, not to forget the several devotees who wait in queues to do the special pujas for Rahu, Kethu and Naga. The return drive to Bangalore was slow but smooth. As we passed through Palamaner, I looked for the beautiful sunflower farms which I had seen during my trip to the place few years back; but I couldn't see much of them. I could see lots of trees being cut and granite formations being demolished on both sides of the road for a long stretch, to make space for the expansion of the highway. At 4:30PM, we reached Hosakote, and soon we could inhale the familiar and unpleasant smell of Bangalore again. |
| Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 | |
| 9:22 pm | I watched two films during the weekend. March of the Penguins is a documentary film showing an year's life of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. Each year, hundreds of penguins travel hundreds of miles to reach remote frozen areas of the continent, to meet their mates. Once the female bird lays an egg, she passes the egg on to the father, and then takes up the long journey back to the ocean, to feed. The father penguin takes great pain to keep the egg safely stored between his legs when the mother is away, not eating any food all this time. By the time the mothers come back, the eggs are hatched. The famished male penguins pass the baby bird to the mother, and then run to the ocean for feeding. It is now the mother's turn to starve, and see the babies grow. They have some food stored in their throats with which the babies are fed, until the males return back after filling their stomach. After this cycle, it's time for the family to break up, as the parents go their own way, and the children, now independent, start exploring their own life. Painstakingly picturized, this marvelous film is a pleasure to watch. The amazing behavior of the birds many a time makes us feel as if we are watching the life of humans, and the scenes showing the mother bird crying over the dead body of its offspring would make us feel a lump in our throats. This is one of those rare films that have this special quality to make the viewers get a feeling that they have become better human beings after viewing. Luchino Visconti's The Leopard shows the turbulent period of 1860s in Italy, when the aging Prince of Salina (an outstanding performance by Burt Lancaster) observes, a bit philosophically, the centuries-old domination of his family over the country being taken over and replaced by a new political system and order, and in parallel, his own personal entertainment activities also slowly coming to an end due to his age. The long dialogue-oriented scenes in the film sometimes tested my patience, but the visuals of the film are a treat to watch, each frame looking like a Victorian painting - I especially liked the long scene showing the prince's nephew and his girlfriend moving around in the palace, with the beautiful girl's dark costumes creating a sharp contrast with the varying colors and designs on the walls of the rooms. |
| Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 | |
| 8:05 pm | 12 Angry Men 12 Angry Men (1957), directed by Sidney Lumet, starts with the scenes from a court. A boy is accused of the murder of his father, and there is clear evidence against him. A jury of 12 members has to decide upon his fate now. And the verdict, whatever it is, has to be unanimously approved by the jury. Rest of the film is mostly set inside a single room, as we see the jurors discussing over the case. When the discussions start, it appears that there is no need for any debate at all, as the case is crystal clear to the jurors. All say that the accused is guilty. All, except one - One of the Jurors, Davis (Henry Fonda) strongly argues that there is a need for analysis and he says that there is a "reasonable chance" that the boy could be innocent. So, the talks start. Slowly, it becomes clear that the opinions of the jurors are not decided by the proofs and logical arguments alone, but by their various prejudices, personal traits, ego and inhibitions, and even experiences in their own life. Davis places his arguments and challenges each and every evidence against the boy. Slowly, the jurors change their votes one by one - Many of them following the logic in his words and others because of the circumstances in the process of the discussion itself. By the end of the film, the jury unanimously declares that the boy is not guilty. I think it was a tremendous achievement to make such an absorbing film picturized almost entirely in the confined space of a conference room. The arguments and counter-arguments are interesting, but much more interesting is the character study of the jurors. |
| Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 | |
| 9:56 pm | View from the Summit View from the Summit, the remarkable autobiography by legendary explorer Sir Edmund Hillary, starts with narrating his 1953 Himalayan expedition that culminated in the ascent to the summit of Mount Everest along with Tenzing Norgay, his comrade. After narrating the exciting moment that changed his life, and the celebrations that followed, Hillary does a flashback to take a brief look at his childhood at a remote New Zealand village. His disciplinarian and rather unkind father was doing bee-keeping business, in which Hillary and his brother also made many contributions. His mother was a more organized person, and wanted Hillary to go for studies. Hillary was a shy and silent boy at the school, not acquiring any close friends at any point of time (He writes that he had grown so shy that later his future mother-in-law had to propose on behalf of him to his girlfriend). Hillary gives a candid narrative about his lonely childhood and about his slightly strained relationship with his father, and I was sad that this section was too short. Hillary then describes how he started developing a love for mountains, and narrates his initial mountaineering experiments in New Zealand, and later his multiple adventures to the Himalayas. The next section is about Hillary's expedition to the South Pole, when he lead a team of tractors over Antarctica for several hundred miles to the Pole. After that, Hillary spent a few years in the US, doing quality inspection of tents at a tent-making company as a part-time job. During this period, he traveled all over the US with family, and spent several weeks camping at different places in Alaska and Canada. Hillary then goes on to narrate his various adventures at India and Nepal, in one of which he and team ventured by speed boats over Ganga from the oceans to her source in the mountains. Later Hillary traveled to the North Pole (this time by air). As an elderly man, Hillary gets a chance to get associated with India closely again, when he serves as the High Commissioner of New Zealand. With my limited GK, I had known Hillary as an explorer alone, but in his autobiography I could see that in his mind he had an equal or more important place for his humanitarian efforts in the Himalayas than the mountains themselves. The Sherpas were close to his heart, and his dedicated efforts for the welfare of the people at remote Himalayan villages, starting schools and hospitals for them, establishing water supply, etc. often rivaled the initiatives by the Nepalese Government itself, it appears. Hillary is frank and sincere while writing about his life and adventures - He doesn't hesitate to admit that he had a secret feeling of satisfaction to hear that his comrades of the first assault party to Everest failed to reach the summit, leaving some job to do for himself and Tenzing. He also doesn't conceal his slight irritation over the episode in which Tenzing was projected as the first man to set foot on Everest. His passion for giving technical details makes the chapters on Polar Expedition look a bit like a trip-log, but it is never dry as he also brings up the characters lively, with their ego and competition in profession and all (He notes that the expedition almost looked like two expeditions, with Bunny Fuchs, the lead, starting to the Pole from one end, and Hillary and team starting from the other end and reaching the Pole a few days earlier than Bunny). When he writes about the sad predicament of the dogs that were part of the Polar expedition, and about his reluctant hunting expeditions at North America, we see a sensitive but strong man who is not afraid of admitting his mistakes. The more emotional and warm side of the explorer is revealed when he talks about his bidding farewell to family before his 18-month trip to the Pole, and about his infrequent radio conversations with them later on. Hillary looks more humane than ever when he mentions about the depressive years after the death of his wife and daughter. Reading through Hillary's autobiography was a memorable experience. As I went through the pages of the book, I could clearly visualize the life of the great explorer as in a film - Starting as a modest bee-keeper, going on for explorations in the Himalayas on foot, going to the South Pole, traveling to various countries and experiencing many delightful and tough phases of life. We could sense the passage of time itself in a way it would have appeared in a classic period drama, as we see many people coming and passing through Hillary's life, age catching up with him and he slowly giving up his high altitude adventures. It becomes more apparent when we read the last few chapters, where he narrates his attending the funeral of Tenzing, and his visit to the South Pole at the age of seventy eight, remembering his days as a young explorer. When I finished reading the book, I could just say, "Oh! What a life!", and could just thank the great man for this excellent memoir that he wrote during the last years of his life. |
| Sunday, February 17th, 2008 | |
| 9:03 pm | Mazhakkannadi Today I read the book Mazhakkannadi, a collection of stories by Innocent. Whereas Njan Innocent was a collection of memoirs, Mazhakkannadi is presented as a collection of short stories, even though all except one (Edukkatha Nanayangal) are autobiographical works. Innocent's life story reminds us of Basheer in many ways. Innocent discontinued his studies after eighth standard (schools had imposed limitations on the number of years a student can study in one standard, Innocent gives us the reason for his dropping out!). He tried various occupations at many places in India and went through many tough situations in life before establishing as a film actor. When many people try to forget their bitter experiences of past, Innocent fondly remembers them and is able to present them to the readers in a humorous way. The places and atmosphere of Irinjalakuda of the sixties and seventies come alive in vivid colors in his memoirs. The stories are not just for "time pass"; For example, Karinja Nakshathram talks about an adolescent affection and the story ends leaving a mark in our hearts. Written in simple and straight-forward language, Innocent's stories are far more delightful to read than the convoluted writings by established Malayalam writers of recent times. I wish Innocent would spend more time writing about his life, friends and relatives, and about Irinjalakuda, and give us more such memorable stories. |
| Friday, February 15th, 2008 | |
| 6:40 pm | Jodhaa Akbar Watching Jodhaa Akbar was like watching an elephant. I felt that the film has something we call in Malayalam as "aanachantham" (Elephant's beauty). In the 3.5 hours long movie, we get to see exquisite sets with glistering palaces and actors wearing colorful costumes, the wonderful "khwaja mere khwaja" and "azeem-o- shaan shahenshah" songs choreographed with great effort, great visuals of Rajasthan's desert landscapes shot in ultra wide angle (There is a particular scene that reminded me of the famous mirage scene in Lawrence of Arabia), war scenes that are the finest I have seen in Indian cinema (Not that that is a great achievement, though), a sword-fight between Jodhaa and Akbar and another between Akbar and Sharifuddin, both picturized brilliantly, Another scene where we see Akbar taming an elephant, and many such splendid visuals. The movie is worth watching for this "elephant's beauty". Apart from that, the film is about the love affair between Mughal emperor Akbar and his Rajput queen from Amber, Jodhaa. If we take out the layers of visual magnificence out of the film, it still remains full of life, even though some of its scenes are either too dramatic or too shallow and oversimplified, reminding of scenes from BR Chopra's television serials (like Akbar's visit in disguise to the Agra market to understand the "real life" of his countrymen and the abolition of pilgrim's tax that followed quite soon, Jodhaa running towards Krishna's idol and breaking into a song responding to the "dreadful" marriage proposal from the emperor, etc.). I was actually prejudiced against the movie thinking that Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai may not be able to do justice to the characters of Akbar and Jodhaa, but they have done a decent job, actually. |
| Thursday, February 14th, 2008 | |
| 8:17 pm | Njan Innocent Njan Innocent is a collection of interesting memoirs written by actor Innocent. Most of them are about his childhood days at Irinjalakuda, and the various funny incidents narrated in these stories reminded me of Bobanum Moliyum comics. There are a few articles about his contest in the municipal elections, and about his days as a matchbox factory owner at Davangere, all told with a slight touch of Basheer. The moving memoir about Louis, his childhood friend, shows us that Innocent is good in narrating not just humorous incidents. His "capability to narrate intense experiences of life in a humorous way", as KM Mathew writes in his avatharika, is what makes this book a nice reading experience. |
| Monday, February 11th, 2008 | |
| 2:50 pm | Sathyan Anthikkad, Mukesh, Mamukkoya, and now it is Innocent to come up with a book. Last few days I was in Kerala, and during a visit to Current Books, I bought two books written by actor Innocent. The stories in these books were serialized earlier in Malayala Manorama weekly, it seems. I read first few pages of one book when I was in the train yesterday, and it looked like an interesting book. I also got a chance to read a few articles written by Mohanlal on Malayala Manorama newspaper recently (my father has been collecting it). Written on various subjects in simple language, these articles make very good reading. Naveekarana Kalasam and Punaprathishta functions are starting at Koodalmanikyam temple from today. They have made a new door on the northern side of the inner temple, based on some "thanthric proposals", as part of the function (I guess). On Saturday, I met Suraj at Eranakulam, and we went for a movie, National Treasure: Book of Secrets at Sridhar theatre. It's nowhere near the first National Treasure movie, but is watchable for once. |