Ooty - What is it?

------------------------------------------- details to follow!!

Five years of rambling......

This day..... a few years ago......
A Backbencher thought of rambling sitting in a corner ..............

And......................
After Mumbai was attacked....... after India won a Cricket world cup, after Osama Bin Laden was shot dead...........
After a lot of scams and chaos, after Anna hazare declared his war on corruption...........
After five monsoons, and five summers....... after Obama entered the White House...... and after Benazir Butto was killed..........
After 3 Idiots broke all the India movie records....... and after Avatar changed the way the world watched movies.....
After M F Hussain painfully surrendered the Indian citizenship...... after Sachin scored a double ton in a one day match......... and after Bhimsen Joshi died............
After the Ayodhya land was cut into three pieces by a court.......... and after the Sathya Sai Baba left his mortal body.........
After the Indian flag landed on the Moon........... and after the Chandrayan found water on moon with a NASA equipment.........
After the Oracle gobbled up the Sun Microsystems..... and after the android phones hit the market........... after 2G..... 3G and then the 4G...........
After the stars from Elizabeth Taylor to Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan left us with a void.....
After Star Plus finally stopped the sobbing serials........
After the Dalai Lama desired to resign from exile politics....... and after the LTTE was routed.......
After the Nepal became a confused democracy....... and after the people uprising in the middle-east........
After Mubarak was ousted.......... and after Saddam Hussein got executed.....
After the IPL was launched........... and after Bangalore got its International Airport..........
After the dish tvs protruded the rural Indian homes....... and after Michael Jackson left Neverland and the world in a shocking way..........
After A R Rahman stood upto the world challenge to win an Academy award...........
After Lee-Hesh went on a rampage, winning all that they played...... and then parted ways..... and then came back together......... And after the facebook became a way of life......
After the island volcano Eyjafjöll awakened to stand the European airspace to a still...... and after a Royal wedding left the British in a frenzy....
After the cheapest car Tata Nano became a reality............. and After the Tsunami destroyed Japan........
After China topped the Olympic medal table........ and After the Midnight's Children became the booker of Bookers.....

And....
After conquering the mighty Himalayas, the wonderful Sahyadris.... and the challenging Nilgiris.....
After a lot of traveling and a lot of new learning....... and after meeting a lot of new people.........
After riding thru from the East Coast to the West Coast......
After changing my marital status on my facebook account.....

Here I am - declaring that the last five years have been phenomenal, in every way possible!!

Thanks for reading me through :)

The festive furore!!

A walk on the main markets of Bangalore takes you back in time!

A sea of stalls selling flowers of all colours, adjoining stalls selling fruits of multiple variety. Prices shooting up, but the spirit ecstatic!

Some ad-hoc shops, make shift ones as well, selling bangles of different colours and sizes eat up the walk way on those streets, people seldom have complaints about them!

People walk on all the available lanes, bargaining high for a rupee or two to make the shopping contented.

Villagers stocking up banana leaves, banana plant-trunks, mango leaves, garike straws and variety leaves which are specifically used in the festival coming a day-next.

Traffic on those roads - a choc-o-bloc and no body cares, of course!!

And the main attraction of the market would definitely be the illuminated make-shift stalls with lines of colourful Ganesha and Gowri idols. Truly a sight not to be missed, and a feel not to be unfelt!

Thats a traditional Indian festival-eve, for you!

Yes, you are experiencing the great Indian festive furore! The middle class of this country comes alive in all those traditional market lanes on such days. Great sights and great preperations.

Wishes for a great Gowri-Ganesha festive season.

Anthoo Inthooo....

Hallakke bidda.........

Yaaru??

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Namma Prashantha (Payaniga)

Yavaga?? Yelli? Yenu??

Yeah! Last Sunday he fell into wedlock with Madame A.

Here's wishing the lovely couple a great married life!

Srik

Mathe Mungaru

I agree. I am at fault – for not coming back to my blog. But you know, it needs a push, a reminder or some event to change the sides and to be back in business.

The title suggests – Monsoon, again! Monsoon is a synonym to good times. And yes. I am back to the good old days, means blogging too!

A change in the personal ‘status’, a little too much work and work and family related travelling has all added up to my inability to put some stories here. I am overcoming all of them, to be back to (another) eternity.

Well… Life has been good all these days. Marriage is a definite eye opener of sorts for a youngster. And very much – IT IS A GREAT FEELING TO BE MARRIED. I really mean it.

Monsoon, again – Mathe Mungaru is incidentally a movie in Kannada which is hitting the screens today. The promos and the story looks to be intriguing, intense, and the songs are awesome, to say the least. I hope the production house, which lead every Kannada speaking creature in getting drenched in that eternal Mungaru Male, is successful in recreating that feel of monsoon, again.

Let me review this album for you.

The music is composed by some Paul Raj. I am sure he will attain the new heights with this album, which has been made with lots of innovative techniques, and melodious tunes.

The singers – the Likes of Asha Bhosle, Hariharan, Chitra, Karthik, Vijay Prakash and Shreya Ghosal have lent their voices to this beautiful album.

The album opens with a tragic solo by Karthik, “KangaLu Kanalive” – This sets the tone for this whole album. Background music for this song is exceptional at places. Though slow paced, the song gets straight in to the soul of the listener. However, the same feel is not kept thru the song, it dilutes in the middle, and catches up again. The song, however, gets its due and succeeds to connect to the listener. Karthik does superb in this song.

The duet ‘Chita pata chita’- by Karthik and Shreya Ghosal is fantastic. The melody, pace, the orchestra, the lyrics and the heavenly vocals of Shreya all are in perfect harmony through out the song. A must listen for any Kannada music enthusiast.

"Summaniruva ee manasali" by Ranjith is smooth and passes off. It is just another seasonal song added now a days by default to a Kannada album. Ranjith is high with energy throught this song. a peppy one.

There is a patriotic song ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’, which is sung by the ‘Jai Ho’ star Vijay Prakash for the most part and though he does well – the music and the lyrics are off synch. It fails to pull any patriotic feeling in the listener. Chitra’s vocals towards the end bring the much needed lift to this song.

“Belagayitu” is a theme song sung by Hariharan. Hariharan’s magical voice is tailor-made for this sort of a song. He performs wonderfully in this song. I felt the lyrics are heavy, though. I am not sure if that had anything do with the actual intensity of the movie. Wonderful folkish music accompanies Hariharan here.

The crown of this wonderful album is “Helade karana” rendered in an emotional tone by the veteran melody queen Asha Bhosle. Beautiful lyrics clubbed with an apt musical blend lift this song to the voice of Asha Bhosle. I appreciate her for having taken this song, and making this a complete album!

In all, this is a complete album, with a perfect mix of singers from north and south – Kannada and otherwise too. Karthik is a revelation in this album. Lyrics are by the director Dwarki Raghava and V Nagendra Prasad.

I give my best rating to this album. I will try and see this movie as well this weekend. Let me see.

Here is a related story that appeared on Rediff today. This movie, as the article states, is based on the true story of some Narayana from coastal Karnataka's life's roller coaster ride.

BTW – Here is a picture taken by me, which has been picked by Rediff to showcase in their monsoon pictures series. Let me know if that was worth it!