Thank God Its Saturday...

The Robinson Crusoe Experience!

For a change, this weekend was planned quite in advance by buddy Sam. We had Paulie coming down from kangaroo land(Australia) for christmas vacation. It was decided to meet up for a "Robinson Cru-soe" english play. Well guys, when sam had asked me while booking tickets,I had no idea what this show was about. Still, I half-heartedly agreed as my priority was on meeting up with Paulie after a long time.
The show was supposed to start @ 3 pm while I landed up at egmore museum auditorium by 3.10 pm. Sam rushed me in as Jaya had made sure we got the best seats in the house. While entering I saw few of the posters of the show and had the perception that it was a kid's event. I didn't want to play spoilsport and entered the hall with least expectations. There was a grand entrance with a pale looking guy entering from the crowd with a comical makeup loosely dressed up introducing himself as "mama". Well, I was cursing under my breath 'not another "mimickry" performance, show me some creativity ppl'. Two minutes later, I was muttering 'hmm,not bad'. This mama narrator had a nice looking maamy for company. Mama and maamy introduced most of the characters of the play like friday, sunday, holiday ;)
It was a theatrical journey involving the audience to a large extent with peppy music which was quite a good experience. There was this friday character(a guy dressed as a voluptous gal showing off its assests) looking out for a guy to mate. Lets call this he/she whatever as Friday to avoid the gender confusion. 'Friday' was hunting for a person to mate not just on stage but off stage as well which meant Friday was searching for a bakra amongst the crowd as well.
Guys a prelude here- Sam and Jaya had been watching this show for almost 4 years now if I am right. I was 'allocated' the corner seat which meant I was the nearest one amongst us in the 'bakra' zone. Initially, when I sat down I thought I had the best view and was thankful to sam but after seeing 'friday' walking on the narrow path zone gave me the chills. When I turned to my friends, I could see a sarcastic smile on all 3 faces(Paulie, Sam & J) as if they were waiting for 'friday' to pounce on me. I could sense their wicked plan now. I had to turn away and avoid focus when 'friday' was doing her 'ramp' walk on the narrow zone near me. This 'friday' did almost 3 -4 ramp walks and everytime it came near me my heart stopped beating virtually. Guys, It was cruel, poor me.. But on the other hand, there were quite a few 'beautiful' characters on screen. The one who impressed me with her skills was a villianious secretary to the 'king of the land'. This hot siren really impressed me and painted the auditorium RED. Quite a impressive performance. I could understand why 'mama' was eyeing for her. Maamy (mama's foil) need not to be left behind, she was quite good too in terms of looks and acting.
The music was in synch with the choreography and was a huge plus. It was supposed to be a kid's play and it had a lots of cute kiddies dancing for the jingles. I really had to appreciate the perfect timing and synch of all characters in the play. It had minimal flaws and was almost perfectly executed. I understood it should have taken a lot of a hard work & painstaking effort to get them there, mainly the kids.They were entertaining with nice cha-cha and gr8 ga-ga.I guess, it really payed off well, Hats off!
There were 2 faces in the play One of which reminded a guy in my college(Denver) and other of an ex-colleague.We (myself and Sam) made it a point to personally meet 'mama' and appreciate him but that fella seemed to be more keen on concentrating to the gal standing next to us. Hmmm, a true male species ;)
The best part of the play was towards the end with a superb social message driven across after a "lived-happily-ever-after" climax and it took a few minutes for the oldies in the audience to get the real message which was being screwed into their heads "Whatever you drive, wear safety" .
All of us were laughing our heads off throughout the play and Sam deserves a special mention here, not just for planning this but also for the exclusive snaps clicked.. Thats it Folks ;)

Coming up next is my Chepauk Cricket experience which is put on hold as I need to upload a few videos that I shot..

Sunday Special- Dostana

Well, its been a busy couple of days with rains flooding chennai and mumbai under siege by terrorists. About mumbai fiasco, only F's and B's come to my mind when I think abt India's politicians- quite expectantly. I was glued to my TV set watching news for the couple of days & chennai was submerged due to heavy rains. It was high time I stepped outdoors, thats when my buddy Sam called up with the Dostana movie plan(30th Nov). I badly wanted to watch this movie for one PRIMARY reason.. It turned my Friend into a Gay...

There is one of my friends, lets not bring his name in to the picture..
I had a recent chat with him on Gtalk, thats when he told me that he had become GAY after watching the movie. Also, he tried to make some illicit advances on chat. Thankfully since he was in bangalore & I was in chennai, I was saved. Later he confessed that his roomie was using his lappy who was the culprit and not him. I still am clueless really and dunno what to make out of it.
This incident made me curious and inquisitive abt Dostana and the promos with priyanka looking really chic were pretty motivating as well.

Ok, now back to the movie..
Its become a syndrome where I seem to miss out on first 5-10 mins of almost all movies that I have recently watched.This one was no exception. Dostana is an out and out fun and frolic movie with Abishek and John Abraham as the lead Gays, oops Guys ;) Priyanka plays the female lead and Bobby Deol is the surprise package. Priyanka doesn't fail to disappoint with her performance and not to mention her skin show. John has come a long way since his JISM days and has really worked on his act in dostana. Abishek and John make a good pair.Abishek has performed superbly and even made me think he was a real gay. I couldn't believe this guy was faking. Well again, I really have to appreciate Junior B and I for one believe this is one of his best comic performances so far. Superb comic timing! There again was this romantic scene that he shared with priyanka in a exhibition which showed his "true" colors- affinity for a GAL.I had a awesome time after watching this make-no-sense movie. Dostana for me, was a hilarious and outrageous comic caper!

Watch out for a faked dumb lippy kiss between John & Abishek Bachan.. he he ;)

My Chennai "Auto" experience

This is not my first gr8 experience with autos in chennai (*SARCASTIC PUN*). Guys, I was working in Bangalore till sometime back and am back to my roots (Chennai) now. I use Bike as my primary mode of commuting in chennai, I am quite OK with city buses as secondary option.
There was this one instance where I had given my bike at Khivraj(a reputed Bajaj showroom) for servicing. I had to take my bike back from servicing and had to rush to Khivraj(service centre) before closing time. The situation demanded a auto, so I started hunting for an auto. I stay @ triplicane and its almost 1.5 kms from my place to church park school (nearest landmark to khivraj).

Its been sometime since I had travelled in Autos in chennai, I was previously in Bangalore where auto fellas used to use something known as "METERS" in autos and if it is later than 10 pm it would be 1.5 Meter fare until 6am in the morning.
I was in for a rude shock when I started to search for an auto in Triplicane, chennai, believe me ppl: the auto fella asked me for 60 bucks for approx 1.5km. I asked him abt the so called METER which was sitting idle for which he replied "it doesn't work sir". I politely refused him and was hunting for another auto, this guy was much better and asked me 50 bucks. I was like "Gimme one valid reason why I should give 50 bucks for covering under 1.5 kms?" for which he replied "Petrol rate has increased". What am I supposed to do for it was the question running on my mind. Even before I could ask it, he shooted "You are working in IT company na, can't you pay 50 bucks?" I sarcastically told him, my company doesn't refund auto fares and asked him abt the showcase(auto meter) which was sitting idle. He got quite bugged up and left. I had to try the same with couple of other autos with no luck, one interesting observation was that if auto fellas are not interesting in going to a area they won't say 'NO' rather they ask for "ransom" fare (*HUMOUR PUN*) which is their sweet own way of saying 'NO". Since, it was quite urgent, I couldn't keep on hunting for auto-rick forever and as luck would have it,finally I did get a auto which passed my way and had to settle with a rickfella for 30 bucks which was nominal when compared with 50-60 odd bucks. When I got into that auto, I started poking at the auto fella as to why auto drivers were demanding such an "exoberant" fare and he started narrating his problems like "petrol" problem, mama issues and low meter fare per km. It was my turn to give a piece of my mind, I told him how my non chennai friends feel about Chennai auto drivers and poke fun at them? Also, I gave him a comparison of Bangalore ricks and Chennai ricks- and the perception it has on outsiders. he became silent. I took his silence in a positive way and finally got down from auto with a sense of relief. When will chennai get its Obama who could bring about the "CHANGE"?
1. Why DON'T 'namma chennai' auto fellas use METERS?
2. Are they not aware of basic manners when handling customers? I am not expecting the auto guys to speak in accented english. But atleast, if a elderly thaatha/paaty needs a auto, he could reply appropriately.
3. Can't they have their License displayed on back of their seats for passenger notice like it happens in Bangalore?
4. When is LPG going to be made mandatory in chennai autos?

"Atithi Devo Bhava" which means treat your guest like God. This is one of the biggest day crimes happening daily going un-noticed.
Well, I was wondering when our auto fellas would have a change of heart? Is someone listening or is it falling on deaf ears? When will our administration wake up and take notice of this?

Varanam Aayiram.....

Varanam Aayiram

Am just back home from 'Shanti' theater watching Varanam Aayiram. I logged onto my thinkpad to "vomit" my 2 hr 55 min experience with all you guyz. Its a movie which I loved in patches and wouldn't mind watching again as well. Gautam Vasudev Menon is a courageous director who dares with this kinda venture, quite offbeat I would say..

Well, I really dunno how the movie starts as I missed the first 10 mins of the movie thanks to my pal NS who made a late appearance with another fella. When I was finally glued onto my seat, I saw Surya in a smartly clad army uniform and narrating his flashback on a helicopter.

I really felt disconnected with Father surya and Simran's romance. Believe me, I had listened to the songs more than 1000 times had a little too much of expectations which the movie failed to fulfill. Harris Jeyaraj is amazing in his composition and has tried different synchs(like anjalaey song) and back ground score is out of this world. Music and picturusation works wonders for this movie and is a huge plus.Surya's six pack is absolutely awesome and inspiring. I really don't want to get too deep into the story as it would spoil your expectations. Varanam Aayiram is a about a guy who rediscovers life because of his parents after his love evades him. The presentation is different and you could see Gautam's touch/class in a lot of scenes.

It does tell us that life is like a circle, what goes around comes around. Of course, for people who prefer watching movies with a message, this movie does have a message "Smoking/Drugs are Injurious to health"

All in all, it is a movie which brought out the sentimental side of me and is meant for "niche audience" viewership only. When I came out of theater I saw a lot of disappointed fans who were expecting surya to do a khakka khakka sort of macho. Gautam could have had atleast 10 minutes clipped though. little lengthy i thought. But like I said, this movie is 90% class , 10 % mass and you would be disappointed if you enter with expectation other way around.

Kudos for the entire cast to dare into "Maximum Class, Minimum mass" kinda movie...

PS: Let me watch it another time to give my rating.

The "kathipara flyover" experience.....

The "kathipara flyover" experience.....

Guess One thing which is quite striking between Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. Guess??
Not lifestyle, DEFINITELY not gals and not their IT culture either.. its Traffic jams ;)


Well, I would definitely regard Chennai as the best out of the four places with regards to traffic. Forgive me for saying this without visiting Bombay, but i was not able to make a quick trip there as my visa was held up by Sarkar Raaj ;)
Gone are the days where you could 'aaram se' lie on the beach and watch the sea or take your gal to Mayajaal and drop her before 8 pm. Well, the "Traffic snarls" has become a part of our lives that we are getting used to. For me to go to my office in ramapuram which is around 21 kms from my place. It takes a solid hour on weekdays and in peak hours, it may take upto 90 minutes. And man, if it rains- I dunno how many hours it may take. The Kathipara tread near Le Meridien in Guindy is one of the busiest roads as it is a connecting corridor to the city and entry point for most of the buses and lorries coming in and going out. Its quite a ugly scene when you come in during peak hours as there are 2 main hurdles (signals) to cross. Its been many years now that the "Flyover project" is being constructed. The Flyover project has actually compounded the traffic problem as it was using lot of space and also polluting the vicinity. Add to this fact, It was running way beyond schedule and was supposed to be completed more than a year ago. The Flyover was testing my patience for sometime now.

All this changed, when I came back to office after Diwali vacation and was in for a pleasant surprise. Thats true, on 28th october when I was on my way to office I was in for this sweet surprise and had this opportunity of using the new flyover. I had thought someone had accidentally opened the gates kept to close the flyover as it was not painted completely and looked half done and only later got to know that it was given a temporary makeover so that our CM could inaugrate it. I only hope that the work which is half done completed and doesn't stay as a political gimmick for th ecoming elections.

As per my friend Wiki, The Flyover has been completed and was inaugurated by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Dr. M. Karunanidhi on 26th October, 2008 at 21:00 hrs IST. It was then open to the public. The Kathipara Grade Separator is now a signal free interchange that links IRR, Mount road, GST Road and Mount-Poonamallee Road and is expected to solve the problem of traffic snarls that is a common sight at this junction.... Yippeee !!

Let me tell you that this 6-lane 1.41km flyover has saved atleast ten minutes of my travel time and does not have any signals. Isn't that cool? This has definitely made a impact on Chennai traffic in Guindy area and would reduce the number of accidents that normally happens on this road. This has been "perfect Diwali" gift for all the people who regularly use this road including me. The flyover is quite similiar to the"Domlur flyover' in Bangalore except the difference being its length of the stretch. I also got to know that there is a park with fountain that is going to be constructed around it to give a "picturisque" outlook. Hmmm, looks like a nice thought but the problem with our politicians is all of them have nice thoughts but only few of them implement or convert those thoughts into action.

Being an optimist, I hope to see good things to follow... Jai Hind!

Watch this space....

Watch this space.... "Diwali Dhamaka"

Sneak Preview.....



My Diwali Dhamaka

The Day before Diwali- Part one

Festivals are days which bring friends and families together and I strongly believe in that.
Diwali is one of those 'festive' days I make sure I spend with my parents. This year was no different except for one reason.

For the past couple of years, I had to rush in on Diwali day and return back the next day to Bangalore. Let me tell you, it was not so easy
travelling back and forth without 'reserved' tickets from Bangalore and every time was an adventure in itself and would take ages to blog on
those.



Coming soon @ murlees.blogspot.com

அஜித்தின் ஏகன்- ஒரு விமர்சனம்

The "Aegan" Experience...


It is Diwali season and there are only 2 major movies released this time around.The Royal battle was between 'Thala's Aegan' and 'Seval'. Seval(Cock- the bird ;)) was considered as the Dark horse and was touted to overpower our thala's mass appeal as Seval was directed by hari and had Boyz Bharath starring in it. Well, I decided to opt for a Thala's movie, the last time I watched Thala's movie(within first week) was RED and my friends who gave me company for the horrifying RED experience predicted watching Aegan as "Suicidal". I decided to stick to Aegan for a couple of reasons.
1. Nayanthara.... oooooomph factor all over ..
2. After Billa, I think Ajith has gained a matured sense of cinema within him..
3. Yuvan's music was too good along with Raju sundaram's treatment - Good Combo
4. It is a remake of main hoon na- I liked the hindi version.. Which was incidentally choreographer Farah Khan's debut as director similiar to Raju sundaram..

So after considering all pros and cons,I decided to go for Aegan. As luck would have it, I didnt get 3 tickets for second day show. Anand a.k.a Rishi had come over for Diwali and had booked tickets online through his friendy(hmm). So when the D-day finally did come in, we got all dressed up in our Diwali costume and started. I was in for surprise at Roopam, normally I have never been asked for identity proof even at sathyam. Today at roopam which was supposed be below par than satyam, We were asked for identity proof, only then I got to hear that tickets were booked by Anand's friendy's friendy and after cajoling her, anand got her number and gave it to roopam checking inspector for verification. We were inside the theatre and Roopam was really a neat theater afterall and add to it we got executive seats for just 75 bucks. Ok, Executive class is couple' sofa. I was cursing myself why I didn't bring a gal instead of Anand and anand would have cursed viceversa (lol ;))
After swapping our seats with a college group, we started concentrating on the movie. Aegan was supposed to be the tamil remake of Sharuhk's Main hoon na. I got the impression that Ajith is a big shahrukh fan as his last two films were remakes of King Khan name it Don or Main Hoon na..
Ajith plays a subdued CB-CID officer who has to spy on Pia to get to her father who is a escape convict .This father guy was honcho's ex-accomplice and presently an approver as he has all info abt the kingpin Suman who has an irritating sense of humour and police have been trying real hard to get to him without any success. Ajith has go undercover as a college student to unravel this and get to Kingpin. Ajith's opening scenes add to the sort of desired "character building" macho outlook. Ajith is being asked by his father alias superior officer Nasser to undergo this mission and with initial reluctance, he accepts the challenge.
His initial college scenes coupled with his chemistry with the sizzling hot chemistry teacher Nayanthara is a treat for our eyes. Ajith and Nayanthara seem to share a brilliant chemistry onscreen and nayan has managed to impress the audience with her performance apart from her naval show. Vineet looks good as Pia's boy friend and it shows the identity crisis of his relationship with piya that they are trying to resolve. Well, the movie overall manages to keep audience Chillax. Not much of story but definitely a good remake of main hoon ha with all masala ingredients in proper proposition. Add to it, I had to pinch myself to believe that Ajith was acting in a character shunning all his punch dialogues and overacting.



Raju Sundaram needs to be appreciated for portaying Ajith in a very different avatar. Aegan is Raju's directorial debut, Hats off dude, keep up the cha cha... All in all, it is a fun and frolic watch "once" movie and definitely a good Diwali movie outing for the whole family...

Ajith has a clear message for all his fans "I am back"... Vijay, look out ;)

Aegan (2008)
Cast: Ajith, Nayanthara,Vineet, Pia, Nasser, Suhasini
Music:Yuvan shankar Raja
Director: Raju sundaram
Murlees Rating 3/5

பேசலாம் வாங்க!

The Holy Experience

The Holy Experience

It was my third trip to Sabarimala, and my faith keeps increasing every time I set foot on that soil. It has been a a holy trip which has brought me a lot of inner peace, an enriching experience on the whole.

Well, unlike last time we had a team of 8 people this time around and most of them were working for the same team in Oracle and I was the lone IBMer. We had pooja in Tavarekere Ayyapan temple, had "irumudy" done and my room mates(Suresh & Gokul) were present for the ocassion.
I had Narro(my school buddy) for my company and and also had Anish as Guruswamy and Ratan joining as well. We had narro's manager along his colleague who were "kannisaamies". We got our tickets confirmed from RAC thankfully and started our holy voyage.
Unlike last time, there was less excitement this time in the train and people preferred to sleep like logs in their berths rather than playing games.


We reached Kottayam @ around 12 noon and booked a Jeep to Erumely, there we had Kannisaamies trying to dance from Vaavar sannidhi to the main temple. With the sun scorching we had to make it to the temple quite soon. After having darshan, certain section of our troupe preferred to dip in the pond @ Erumeley and later had lime sodas to quench our thirst.

From there we proceeded to river Pamba and to our disappointment, Pamba was almost dry with water level not even to knee height. we had to use vessels as mugs to bathe in the river, after a cool session in the holy river, we had a light lunch and started the holy climb.
We climbed through jungle side of "Siriya paadhai" as we had brought bow/arrows, Knife and bells from erumely. As per norms, we had kanni saamies shooting arrows near the idol on the way. We reached the holy site by 8:30 pm and sine we had gone in offseason, temple darshan closes @ 10:30 pm. We gathered our coconuts, prayed and climbing the holy 18 steps. And inside, we had a amazing darshan. I got to check it twice and it was simply amazing. I got a amazing view and made sure that i conveyed all my prayers to the almighty.





After that, Myself along with hosur guy(one in our troupe) bought prasadam. Myself and Narro had to make an adjustment with our troupe guys regarding tying the BELL as we had so many people waiting to pounce on it at any cost. With great determination & Swiftness we moved like a hawk and got it done. We were quite happy that our bells were taken by our guys while one of our troupe mate who is a third timer as well lost it to an outsider.

We started back next morning, and coming down the hill was an adventure thanks to the company that i got with Ratan. Ratan was in such a hurry while climbing down, I had to increase my pace to keep track with him. We came in a Junglee route and were down quite quickly. Had our regular limesodas and started back by booking a cab to kottayam.
Finally, my presence had made an impact as we started to gel and play "Yaar mansaula yaru Murali sollraaru paaru" the local version of :20 questions, 3 guesses". It was an amazing session with lots of tuff rounds and we were in kottayam in almost 90 minutes. We had our lunch in one of Tamilnadu style restaurants. Well, it was time for us to split ways and part. One section going to bangalore had go to bus stand for their Volvo bus while we had to go to chennai through train.
We had to wait in the station for almost 2 hours as train got delayed and were chewing about the memories about the darshan we had. The weather at Kottayam was too hot and I was commenting to Narro that it would have been better if we had got tickets for AC coach as we were quite tired and were sweating doing nothing.

Finally our train came and to our surprise there were were 2 "saamies" already sitting on our seat and when we asked them to move, they said their tickets were RAC and got seats confirmed by TTR just now. So, we were waiting for TTR to settle issue and when he did come in, he checked out ticket and to our surprise asked us to move. Well, TTR asked us to move in to AC sleeper. Yippeee... when train stopped at a signal, we jumped out and found our seats in AC. We were quite thrilled and owed gratitude to our holiness whom we had worshipped recently. Wow, felt like a miracle, booked normal tickets and got to be in AC sleeper. There is something special about the place which makes people going there so often.

Swamiye Saranam Ayappa!