A ride to the Arabian sea

A few postcards from my recent trip to the Karavali(West-coast of India). Log for the same is coming up.....shortly.

To note a few key points of the trip :

1. A total of 965Kms covered on bike, and about 250 Kms covered in a taxi.

2. Meeting three bloggers, who are excitingly nomadic. :)

3. Visiting some of the old and well-maintained temples.

4. Crossing the Kerala border for the first time,

5. Managing with Kannada in Kerala(!)

6. Rushing back to Bangalore to attend to work in the evening.

7. Sneaping thru the lovely ghats, past the sexy curves hugging the majestic evergreen forests.

8. Witnessing the popular Aagumbe sun-set.

Will come back to tell you the complete story.

Oooops.... I dint tell you the main reason for me to take on this ride!! We went there to attend a marriage :)

Media go malamaal…Aam aadmi kangal!

When I was browsing thru various news sites today, following news caught my eye.

It was a report from Lokasabha where our softspoken PM was all attacks on his predecessor Govt, according to CNN-IBN. Read the story here.

According to the report, it was mentioned that PM said the previous Govt was anti-farmer and anti-agriculture, and continued to state….the report said “….The Prime Minister, who was interrupted by BJP MPs, said: "we will not stop till we have wiped the tears from the eyes of all farmers".“

So…that’s in the main item on its page, with a catchy head note of “NDA dumped Farmers with 60,000 Crore Rs debt”…

OK… That’s what he spoke and that’s how its been reported. Now look at another report of the same event, on another news page. This time the reporter was Indian Express. They had given this news some third priority on their page or something. And it read ”Manmohan praises Vajpayee for ‘courageous’ steps”!!

Same news reported in two different ways, to reach out to their respective readers.. And how! The crappy system of ‘Emotional reporting’ is definite to break the country, after creating the barriers. This is an example of how one paper reaches out to NDA lovers, and support their views, and another paper reaches to its NDA hater club… WHOM TO BELIEVE, now?

Media go malamaal…Aam aadmi kangal!

Gaalipata!

Hey people,

Finally managed to watch the much-hyped Kannada movie gaaLipaTa.

And to my surprise found it very entertaining:-)

I had very little expectations from it, since usually the second movie after a big one is always not up to the mark, for any director (Even directors of Maniratnam's standards & Farhan Akhthar, Gowariker etc). Also, the first day review published on the front page of VK was a warner against any hope.

But I found the movie attractive, very very glamorous (!) and beautifully done.
To be frank, I don’t usually like local movies, I have disliked movies of high order some times, but this one really caught my imagination.

To make a movie out of no-stuff is an art, and this movie crew has done a great job; have made an entertainer out of nothing at all.

The plus point is the locations it has been shot in, Kodachadri, Mullayyanagiri, the beautiful grasslands in western Ghats of Karnataka (usually called Scotland of India), Shivanasamudra waterfall, some wonderful lakes and dams like Kabini, the seashore in Kasargod with Bekal fort (One we saw in Bombay, TuHiRe song) in the backdrop etc... All of them prettily shown.

All along Kodachadri had been a trekkers' paradise, for its breathtaking Sunrise view. Just for that, people would trek up one of the hardest paths. Now that there is a jeep track that is carved, and shown so beautifully in gaalipata, I’m afraid it will be thrashed out of trekking map of the state, shortly. But no regrets if it becomes a popular tourist destination, and most importantly, if maintained well.

And almost everyone has performed well, the actors, plots and story are just like repercussionists in an orchestra, in an otherwise dominating scenery.

Songs are ok, but what catches your attension is the wonderful background score, that gives the best accompaniment to the enthralling landscapes.

I would highly recommend you the movie, if you have not yet watched it :)
Worth a watch, if not the second time.
Srik.

Also read :
1. Mungaru male, blockbuster by the same director.
2. Other movie Reviews.