Theera Ulaa | Neetoh Alaa | With you

5 years of distance; and togetherness.....

Most 'K' serials dont last this long. Such has been the girth, persistence and intrepidity of the distance in our relationship, which has pretty much stayed 'long-distance' relentlessly over the 5 years that we've been together as of today. Jokes apart, at the risk of sounding cliched, may I say we've only grown closer over the while. 

Five years; does seem like a very short time and a long time at the same time. What started for me as a high school flame grew into a passionate endeavor, then moved into that much feared second phase of obsessions and frustrations, only to grow into this mellow sublime zone that has us revel in trust, respect, understanding and above all, friendship. In scientific terminology, maybe this is what they call as normalization, but I'll let my inner geek be subdued while I write this one.

What intrigues me about these past five years is how the relationship has been so much more than just passion, intimacy and fondness; it has brought out the worst aspects of me that I'd never figured I had in me. As many of those long lost poets would reckon, I was laid bare, only for me to introspect continuously and learn more about myself and life. The fights were equally important as the love; the arguments as much as the agreement, the distance as much as the intimacy, the pain as much as the fun....

Can't really think of a lot more to write now; but to confess about that mystical feeling I get everytime I realize your love for me. And what can better depict that than the look in your eyes...with their shy charming excitement in them everytime we meet; or the empty longing look of them that usually shows up a day or so before we'd be about to part again, only to meet a few months or a year after. As I was watching O Kadhal Kanmani/OK Bangaram recently, just around the time when the track "Theera Ulaa/Neetoh Ala" kicks in, I saw the same look in Nithya Menen's eyes. And in a sudden bolt of realization, I choked in the theater, in revelation of the depth of that look....

Ah that song; it so much resonates with what usually our tryst with love and life feels like. A hastiness, a pleasure, one that keeps no track of time, and knows no bounds; Just a strange journey, in life, emotion and time. 'Five years' does seem like a very short time and a long time at the same time. 

Artnoxious

What Quentin Tarantino can teach us about the AIB Roast!

        Much has now been said and done about the now unfortunately infamous and hopefully, on an underground cult level, famous AIB Knockout, the roast of Bollywood actors Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. What struck me amidst the furore is how seldom has been spoken about the art form that is a Roast itself and its implications on the social and cultural aspects that envelope us. And then, lesser has been spoken about dissecting this art form and how we choose to translate it for our own understanding. I must confess I have no authority over stand up comedy and humor. However, strictly from an audience perspective, as one of the guys who's been enjoying AIB's sketches and podcasts from the beginning more or less, here's my humble two pence on the issue.

I remember Quentin Tarantino commenting on  the violence in his movies and its rather extravagant nature in an interview somewhere. He says that he expects the audience to laugh at all the violence in his movies and not actually be awestruck or disgusted by it. And, when I pondered over this, it actually started making sense. Most of this said violence is so crooked both in its premise and execution that it becomes a caricature of its own self. But what he does intelligently is juxtapose this violence amidst very serious and genuine conversation, depth of character and scenario. This shines light on the fact that, by making us laugh at this violence, he's making us ridicule it and thus see the pointlessness of it all. He silently makes us understand that violence, even in the grittiest of situations, is not the answer and that its mere mention is outrageously ridiculous.

I guess this protocol applies itself graciously to the world of stand up comedy and more so, insult comedy. Of the plethora of stand up comedians and humor artists we have in India, a decent majority have constructed their acts around ridicule. Ridicule, for these acts, works on a fairly superficial level in highlighting and taunting some aspects of our social and cultural lives that definitely deserve it. So most of these acts end up being a case of a community, involving the performers and the audiences, getting together and expressing balanced amounts of humor and outrage over aspects that are plainly, for want of a better word, ridiculous. Then, there's two other forms of humor, which have been predominantly in use - satire and subtext. Satire almost has a brotherly context with ridicule in both its content and its application and has surely found utilization by most of the aforementioned artists. The third variety of humor, Subtext, has been the main foray of two of India's leading video sketch humor channels, All India Bakchod and The Viral Fever. Subtext takes commonplace cultural happenings and projects them in partly uncanny and partly unusual scenarios thus producing humor sheerly out of nostalgic affection and mild inappropriateness. The best example for this would be TVF's famous series, "Permanent Roommates".

The reason I had to dwell elaborately on the forms of humor is to converge on the very nature of the fourth comedy kind, which is chiefly of debate and question now, Insult Comedy. I believe insult comedy takes some parts of everything earlier mentioned (ridicule, satire, subtext) and uses it in a witty way to predominantly satisfy its objective: To take a matter otherwise used in an offensive way in society and by way of satirical and ridiculous insults that mask a greater subtext, make the audiences laugh at it, and thus expose the sheer foolishness and incorrectness of that matter's existence in society. Then, on the surface, there is always the premise of insult comedy being a tool that can encourage both tolerance as well as the very rare trait of self deprecating humor. This is what Russell Peters manifests in his acts which are predominantly insulting to the audiences on the racist lines. Same is the notion with the popular roast of Pamela Anderson where the butt of many jokes is the infamous sex tape between Anderson and her former husband. Same is the notion with Quentin Tarantino and the use of violence in his movies. Same is the notion with the AIB Knock Out.

Now lets face it, through the knock out, AIB did shine the light on several issues plaguing our country and probably sparked a tiny debate or two too. The issues, in no order, include sexism, homophobia, racism, fairskin obsessions, ridiculing obesity, relationship gossip, zero size fervors, etc. And in the process, they managed to raise 40 lakhs for charity. And in more dumbfounding reality, neither is the content nor the language used in the roast event exclusive to the event itself. More or less every stand-up act or podcast revolves around the same thresholds in terms of content or language and more despicably, every 'grand masti'-ish film employs these insults, devoid of subtext, to plain commercial advantage.

So, in essence, all the outrage and the barrage of legal complications that AIB, Karan Johar, Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, amongst others face is, I believe, like in several other cases, an unfortunate consequence of being outrightly obnoxious about reading art and its subtexts. One might call it an artnoxious-ness, a syndrome that mightily plagues our mighty country. I don't even want to get into the freedom of speech argument here. Being offended by a Youtube video that has disclaimers splattered all over it is akin to trespassing a barbed fence, standing in front of a speeding train with a blaring horn, getting hit by it and then suing the engine maker for the horn being too loud. The scenario reminds me of a TEDx talk I'd recently attended, where a Professor studied the effects of violent video games on his teenage children, and ended up finding that the games taught them more of strategic planning and organizing skills than violence. I conclude by paraphrasing his closing lines, "Its not about the content of the game, its about how you choose to play it".

Dad's Travelogue: Stories from a visit to the USA

Foreword: What's a blogger's 'dream come true'? Well, other than getting a book published with a collection of his best works, it might also be something more profoundly gratifying as being able to put up a blog written by his dad. And that's what this post is all about. My dad and mom happened to visit the USA last year and here are his musings on what he saw and experienced over here. So, before I go do extensive brow-beating and chest-thumping, let me just leave it to him now....

Words: Venkata Ramana Murthy Nagavarapu

Moderately Edited by me.

"Funny how certain details in Life seldom change; our travel has started from Kotabommali (in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, India)  with the usual traffic jams at NAD junction in Vizag that put us through one of those many tense moments! Add to that the restaurant at the Airport ended up being shut down and we had to adjust with a sandwich for the night. Surprisingly, Silk Air served hot food at 1.00 AM in the morning! An interesting start indeed!

We landed in Singapore in the morning and it felt good to see the wonderful airport and sneak in some window shopping alongside. The same happened at the Hong-Kong Airport. The last leg of our journey was a 15 hour long flight to San Fransisco. Much to our surprise, we were welcomed by Gunnu (My eldest brother who stays in Los Angeles) and Odinamma (His wife) along with Srikanth (My elder son, with whom we’re supposed to stay in San Jose).

It was a wonderful experience, for starters, to go out on the streets and freeways without the hassle of pedestrians crossing the streets wherever they wished to, alongside the usual horde of animals and cyclists. Another surprise unfolded itself as we visited an Indian Grocery Store where every common Indian commodity item was available on the racks. Talk about the world being a small place!

We also noticed vigilant cops hiding to punish traffic violaters. I understand that they get a percentage of fines they collect from people. We visited the temple at Livermore and the homes of a few of Gunnu’s local relatives. We also went over to the Monterey beach, a 17 mile beautiful drive all along the Pacific coast. It did bring memories of the Vizag-Bhimili road back home, the only difference being the lack of irregular traffic.

Well, it didn’t take too much to lose track of all the details from then on, for the good experience that it was all turning out to be. Here are a few nuances I’d managed to observe about the country and culture in general though -

At the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco – enjoyed the view; The best part was going past the toll gates without having to stop cars. Cars having passes are recognized electronically and the others receive a toll plaza demand by mail to their address as per the registration.

The traffic discipline, cleanliness, maintenance of public toilets et al has to be appreciated and it would be great if we could follow this, at least in tourist places. In all the towns, parts where early development took place are usually called as the Downtown with high-rise buildings, busy offices, costly restaurants, the works. Parking restrictions are tight there and have to be sincerely followed as there is fear of getting hefty tickets if violated.

Visited the campuses of some famous universities like Stanford, Berkeley, California and Ohio State in Columbus. Noteworthy point in all the universities is their choice of not going for concrete structures and giving importance to trees, landscaping and the much needed priority for a natural look. All the universities were buzzing with student activities.

Development of pedestrian walkways and cycle paths in all public places, for instance, in the beaches, is highly appreciable and to be noted by us. All these are useful for the morning walkers, and other health conscious people who are seen walking, running at all times of the day as per their convenience.

Another point to note is the development of science museums and their maintenance for the benefit of all. Space shuttles which were decommissioned are kept in museums with information on the highlights of their voyages.

It’s a very moving thing to see senior citizens and retired people volunteering as guides at tourism locations and explaining people the various aspects of each object/place in a systematic and interesting way.

Dignity of Labour: Everybody enjoys their work and feels proud of their job. People especially old aged, manning toll booths, cash counters, driving tourist vehicles/boats in national parks enjoy their work and work with total dedication. They try to explain minor intricacies also to the visitors. Nowhere is impatience shown by these people.

Freeways: Most of the drivers follow the traffic rules meticulously,  and drive their vehicles with discipline without causing traffic blockades. Imagine freeways having a speed limit of 80 miles per hour! (We came across some of these in the state of Texas). One memorable experience was covering 220 miles in just 2 ½ hours starting by 8.30 AM at Santa Fe and reaching Artesia on our way to Fort Stockton.

I’d have to remember the folks at AAA for their guidance in planning a road trip with maps showing important places with distances, different combinations of freeways to reach the destinations, the maps showing locations of hotels, rest areas, gas stations, availability of food etc.

Of course, visiting important and internationally famous tourist places like Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the Times Square in New York and Washington DC have been cherish-able experiences in themselves. We spent an entire evening at Times Square in New York City where at any given point of time, tourists from more than 100 countries could be seen roaming around.

What’s more interesting is to come across special areas like Santa Fe where hundreds of art galleries have been established both by the Government and private individuals. There were no high rise buildings in the entire town based on a custom that no building should be higher than the Cathedral built centuries ago. We were informed that artists from different parts of the world stay there for months together making their exhibits in art studios.

Similar was San Antanio where the river walk was highly attractive and a famous tourist spot in itself. However I was a bit disappointed to see total commercialization of the river walk by big hotels and others, just to have their presence there.

I want to throw in a special mention about the Subways of New York city; they're wonderfully planned in the early 50s with three vertical levels of underground railway tracks and platforms with good connectivity to all parts of city. It’s surprising to note trains moving with good speed underground and having high rise structures above the ground near the Times Square, the Empire State Building, the new World Trade Centre, the works; at the same time.

Let me go back and add a few notes about our visit to the Niagara: One of the most memorable places that we’ve visited; the ‘Maid of Mist’ journey - going very close to the falls on a boat and getting drenched by the mist - great experience indeed!

Last but in no way the least – the fall colours are nature’s simple and tremendous gift to mankind. The change of colours on the leaves before they fall from trees in winter everywhere looks as if God has painted these colours with a brush on earth. One must absolutely see this atleast once in life"

P.S. - Sorry, couldn't resist the aforementioned chest thumping and that's where this comes in. I just wanted to thank my dad for showing that even at his age, one can maintain a sense of child-like wonderment and charming naivete in appreciating basic things that surround us in Life.

The Better Year that it was!!!

what wud u do..or rather just feel....when your wildest & sweetest dreams come alive altogether.....just in one calendar over a period of 12 amazing months....well, call it the best year of your life, wouldn't you?........well that sums up the emotional blabber that is to come up in the successive paragraphs.....still interested?...read on then...
..for starters...I wanted it all.......i wanted to be a geek..yet be an artist....a huge patron of arts and then someone who can conceive and beat up uber cool machines......i wanted to travel....see places.....spread fun and frolic....i wanted a job....i wanted money....i wanted to be outright lazy and be spoiled silly....and to better it all up, i wanted love!.........
.....and I got it all!
this amazing year began with me working on some super cool machinery concepts that went on to bag national scale awards sponsored by DST, Govt. of India....this was the first ever proper team work experience I had been through with four of my dearest friends constituting two teams, some truly indulgent creative design, fun with the fabrication work and the package summed up by a memorable trip to bangalore and back.....one interesting thing was the sundry attitude of this trip......only to be backed by a beautiful OST called Vinaithaandi Varuvaaya. which also takes up a very significant adherence to my heart for some reasons,which I shall divulge further in this post....
.........the same note followed up when I saw myself build a ropeway in our very own University campus.....I would be left ungrateful if I forgot to mention a big thanku note to all my friends who put in their brains, a better part of their physical efforts and psychologically backed me up in realizing everything......the clincher in the deal was that we bagged an award for outstanding performance that we merely missed out a couple of years ago while being part of the same team, albeit in roles of lesser significance....this was also the first ever experience of myself 'managing' a team with subordinates......
.........next up was an effort that failed hugely in 2009 only to reap better benefits in 2010.....about 1500 applications mailed over to numerous universities in different countries finally bagged me an opportunity to Intern with an uber cool machine tool firm, Mori Seiki, from central Japan. Some serious effort to obtain a passport and visa later,..... I was off to Japan and serious technical work, some great acquaintances, an uber cool purist lifestyle, and lots of travelling ensued......It was not long before I found myself visiting places I dreamt of, seeing cars I drooled about, and clicking pictures that were wallpaper material. .......multiple visits to Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo are things that I cherish even today....Japan taught me new lessons in humility, discipline, sincerity, workmanship and a purist approach to life.....I left with serious respect for the people I met there....and with a Lamborghini sighting being the cherry on a voluptuous and delicious cake!.....till date I'm completely grateful to the amazingly philanthropic folks at Mori Seiki who have entertained me, taught me, treated me to some sublime experiences & in general, uplifted me professionally, philosophically and personally....
........landing back in India and going back to college, I found myself in a radically different perspective, literally too, as this was the final year in college....professionally, folks were more serious with projects at hand and several companies looking for prosepctive new recruits hounding the campus with alluring offers....folks were more emotional as this was one last year of beautiful experiences with friends and juniors during the sublime four year period that college was.......and to top it all, I was more than jubilant and rejuvenated with my experiences of the recent past and had a very positive outlook on life.....I chalked out professional plans...worked them out well.....and extracted what all private time I had for some quality time with friends and everybody beloved.....photography, photoshop, a lot of art and science(my first ever car project was in the making), a class in Salsa, my first solo singing stint with a Coldplay track at the cult fest & my first theater outing in a comedy where I got to play a dame(albeit with terrible make-up) are truly brilliant memories.....the better experiences of them all were all those times when I toiled hard to coordinate company reps and helped a lot of my friends get recruited through campus recruitment activities.....I shouldn't even faintly forget  to add that even I got recruited to Telcon, a Tata-Hitachi JV which provides construction equipment solutions with a very alluring offer....I'm currently working for them, with plans of building a career in Automotive Research strongly on way......

...........of all the above blabbering, a slight reference to the VTV OST brings me back to the best thing that happened to me in 2010.....I seriously disclaim in paraphrasement of the folks who made VTV or YMC(my story's gonna have a happy ending, touchwood!) that my life is in no way related to the movie and is just a plain coincidence, a sheer one at that! .......well, it so happened that the angel that I had dreamt of, that I had hoped I could hold hands with and share love, that I had written a noteworthy love note to once.....got properly convinced about me, got in touch with me..... and after quite some hesitation from either end during which time, we behaved like 'friends'......we happened to confess our feelings for each other....and today, we are emotionally closer to each other than I could have ever imagined possible....I'm in gratitude to her for her reflection of my feelings, sometimes to extents I may not possibly deserve, and can only say, my hand shall always hold hers with all the care I can bestow, in times of turmoil, trouble and joy, as they come.......

.........2010 only needed a classy ending and that it sure received with the December being a solemn tribute to what has already been an amazing year.....I was home after a long time & I was with the angel for the first time.....spending some sublime quality time with my folks & taking the angel into my arms....what more could I have asked for!

..........Today, after what it might seem to be ages in the blogging realms, (laziness always rules, pun intended), I sit in quaint yet solemn reflection of all that has left a cherishable mark on my life in that year 2010......I can only thank the forces responsible for all of it no less.....with the lessons that it taught me, I chug along, only to garner experiences of better brilliance......as they say, Life goes on...its how happy & memorable that you make it that counts.....Grazie.....Arigatou....GodSpeed!

Good Year!!!

...hmm now that the year is finally over....(ok, my lazy blogging means quite a lot of time since the new year kicked in, yet...)....i might finally tell u y it has been a 'good year' for me....despite all the cribbing i did in the previous post....well....firstly....i began realizing things around me...pretty well.....things i had for myself....all the love from friends, family...their importance.....the affection et al.....the comfort and the amazingly posh or rather pampered life I'm living....now, that would make you feel so grateful and actually, literally happy!.....being rejected when asked for a girl's love ( to put in more practical terms, asking her to be my girlfriend).....i actually understood how painful it is not to be loved......so as my next step...i started recognising all those that loved me frnds(chuddy buddies), family...folks.....and i tried to return and contain their love as much as i cud.....to my delight, that made life brighter!......secondly, to a much greater delight, I somehow, in pursuit of distractions from love, found a big pleasure in the finer things of life.....things like a fine piano note, a hot cup of coffee at the end of a tiring day, a room renovation, a small help to a friend.....etcetera......thirdly, one major addiciton now which I wouldn't for any day complain about...the above said quest for distractions led me to become a serious download, music and movie freak.......and I now submerse myself in this world of art so so much that its hard to believe I used to be a hardcore engineering geek......better Gandini than Chris Bangle then?........all three reasons for me, now that life has had a better year, have deemed 2009 one Good Year...for all those hardships that were......those that turned me so much more efficient in tackling situations and being rough albeit quite sensitive and right minded........for all those moments that made me understand life....and be a better me........I reckon well, only to appreciate over at the tip of my loudest voice, how much better 2010 had been.......coming up!

One GoodYear!!!

hehe...not the tire company...but..here I am standing at almost the end of one good year of my life....yet with one more month to go and all...but with the odd semester ending....its almost the end of the academic calendar and so.....now all I might like doing now is to reconcile the best moments of this year, which have been countless...but I'd want to highlight on all those moments that have been testing, tiresome and very harsh and rough for me this year, which have actually been aplenty. ....with one boring semester in the beginning, followed by a very tough academic pursuit, like the cream on the cake comes chicken pox followed by a dirty result.....summer left me no less pain where I tried hard to realize my first love and was rejected; come monsoons....while everybody goes out humming love notes...i was desperately avoiding ballads....hehe....a very amusing yet tiresome odd semester bestowed a whole lot of unrealizable dreams on me.....a wasted intern opportunity at Germany.....a lasting debate with my favorite professor.....and a suspended proposal for a much better loving courtship....above all, my projects, assignments, et all hang in around with all efforts getting only minimal recognition......so..where do i stand....y do I call it a good year....??......coming soon......

yapee birthday!!!

my phone doesn't stop ringing...the calls and texts keep on coming.....the bumps were continuous and powerful.....the sky high throw outs, all 19 of them were masterfully managed....my goodness.....the treats leave me broke.....yet....with all that much good will.....and oh..so much love coming in....all you could do is bow down and thank your mere existence....thanks folks..for being there....for making my life and my birthday, so great for me.....i love you all...and myself..:P......here's to life...viva la vida.....!!!