Illness

Folks just back from a long bout of illness - Typhoid.

Two weeks of fever, puking away to glory and severe body pain.

I am still weak and somehow pulled myself to type this.

Folks need all your prayers and wishes for a speedy recovery!

Bye for now.

The Cup of Joy

In a few hours from now the FIFA World Cup 2010 will start. For a cricket-crazy nation, football holds its sway in pockets in Kerala, Goa, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

This year the core favourites remain the same - Brazil and Germany.

My dark-horse bets are on the Netherlands the team that deserves the Cup for its consistent fair-play and "total football".

The second bet is on Spain who have been the most consistent team during the qualifiers and in recent months.

Argentina under the highly psychotic and unpredictable Diego Maradona might throw a surprise or too.

England, Portugal, the U.S.A., Cameroon, Italy, Mexico, Australia, Greece and Ivory Coast are likely to enter the quarter-finals.

Let us wait as the magic unfolds.

May the best team win!

The House of Fear

Ibn-e-Safi was a famous Urdu novelist born in India who settled in Pakistan after partition. He was famous for his detective Imran and the Jasoosi Duniya series thathe created.

The English translation from random House carries two novellas - The House of Fear and Shootout at the Rocks. Translated by Bilal Tanweer the book is a big disappointment for me.

The cover looks shabby and the book looks to have been printed on poor quality paper. Mind you the book costs Rs. 195 and is pretty slim.

The first story is about murders occurring in an old mansion. The second one is about a drug-trafficking ring.

Translation is crude with the couplets of Ghalib used in extremely odd circumstances. It would have been good if the couplets had been transliterated from Urdu to English along with the English translations.

The hero Imran is an MSc Phd. from Oxford University and the son of the head of intelligence. He pretends to be a fool and keeps muttering nonsense. This is a facade and his calculating mind solves problems.

Truly disappointed with Random House. I am awaiting Blaft's translations of the Jasoosi Duniya series.

Conversations on Matrimony

Sunday saw me at the betrothal ceremony of a cousin. The chap is just 22 and the bride is 20. As usual the conversation petered towards my marriage. "Ennada Meshu, Amma iniyum evalo naal thaniya kashta padanum?" "What Meshu, how many more days does your mother have to suffer alone?"

I wonder why they start the conversation with an emphasis on loneliness and suffering. None of these mamas and mamis are willing to marry off their daughters to me. So why do they keep asking the question at every damn opportunity they get.

They come, eat the feast, bless the poor chap and bride, give a small monetary gift and go home commenting -"Aanalum Srini kalyana sappadu alavukku illai" "The feast wasn't as delicious as the one served during Srini's marriage."

Now in this case the chap Venky has an elder brother who is 26 years old, his face was a picture of misery. His horoscope was a bit perplexing and the chap had not secured an IT job. He was working in an electronics store as an accountant. He told me "Anna Ab Mera Kya Hoga?"

I told him -"Dei Seshu, why to worry if we had studied Maths and Science properly we would have also become IT engineers and got marriage proposals from Infosys and Wipro "ponnus". Ellam vidhi!"

So life goes on as one more cousin gets entangled into "Grihastashram".

Horoscopes are shuttling and nothing is materializing. Everyone wants at least a Rs 50000 p.m. salary for their "sweet, god-fearing and good-natured girls". The mind wanders like a monkey, some cousins who are much younger than me are married and settled with kids in tow. Looks like this innings is going to go on for a long time without a partner.

What worries me, is my mother's persistence in wanting a working girl. I would prefer a girl who would take care of my mother.

So folks if you know any good-natured Iyer-girl let me know!

Best wishes to Venky and his bride and the bride-hunt continues for Seshu, Meshu and the many other non-IT-Iyer bachelors.

Team India Crash Out

Team India crashed out of the tri-nation series in Zimbabwe with just one victory to their name from the four matches that they played. Consecutive defeats against Zimbabwe, one victory and one loss against Sri Lanka.

Raina's first series as a captain will be a big learning experience, unfortunately the collective failure of the team, horrendous batting, disastrous running between the wickets and below par bowling have let the fans down.

The Asia Cup will be extremely challenging with Pakistan fielding its most powerful side in recent times. With an announcement ruling out Sachin's participation can Dhoni inspire his team to victory?

Time will tell!

SURA

Vijay's fiftieth movie is a golden bomb. The movie which released with very little pre-publicity appears to have been made in a hurry. Listless acting by Vijay, same boring expressions by Tamannah voiced by singer Chinmayee, the buffoonery of Vadivelu make this an absolute mess.

Vijay's list of flops is as follows now--Azhagiya Tamizh Magan, Aadhi, Kuruvi, Villu, Vettaikaran and Sura.

In Sura, Vijay plays the titular role of a fisherman who works for the upliftment of his colony of fisher-folk.

An evil minister Dev Gill intends to destroy the colony to build a theme park. Sura manages to botch up the minister's smuggling operations and uses the money to build houses, schools and improve the living conditions in the colony.

What could have been presented as an interesting cat-and-mouse game between the hero and villain ends up as insufferable idiocy.

The fights, the dance, the plot, everything looks like if the movie is made on a Vijay template.

Vijay is working with Asin in Malayalam director Siddique's Kaavalkaran the remake of the Dileep-Nayanthara average grosser Bodyguard.

If and only if the movie hits the mark can Vijay rescue his career now.

I have enjoyed his earlier movies like Priyamudan, Kadhalikku Mariyadhai and Kannukul Nilavu. Mass hero movie Pokkiri was enjoyable in bits and pieces, since then is a downward journey.

The powerful theatre distributor owners of Tamil Nadu have asked Vijay to act in a film free of cost to help them recover their losses.

I am sure Vijay will bounce back with Kaavalkaran. With Ajith firmly moving in to racing and unlikely to act in a movie any time in the near future, Vijay has a chance to redeem himself with some good author-backed roles that break away from the mould in which he has been typecast in to. Surya is the actor who has benefitted the most because of Vijay's debacles.

Let us see what the future brings for lovers of Tamil cinema.

Suresh Raina Clueless

Zimbabwe's victory over India was a resounding slap on the face of Indian cricket. For the first time Zimbabwe has defeated India twice in a row.

India needs to defeat Sri Lanka convincingly to reach the finals.

Suresh Raina & CO. have lot of soul-searching to do now.

Image courtesy-Flipkart.com


Fast-paced, quick, a steady mix of pulp fiction, kitsch and a good measure of ancient Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Karan Bajaj in his second novel takes the reader on a ride from a graduation ceremony in MIT, to Cambodia, Thailand, Brazil, back to the U.S. and finally to Delhi.

The protagonist Nikhil and his friend Sam visit Cambodia after graduating from MIT. Sam has an offer from GE and Nikhil has been selected to work in NASA. They land in Cambodia right in the middle of the Khmer Rogue revolution. Nick sacrifices his passport to help save the life of his friend Sam. Nick is captured by the revolutionaries and imprisoned for two years. He is pronounced a CIA spy and is about to be executed. While travelling on a jeep through the forest he seeks his chance and escapes. In the process he is injured and somehow manages to reach Thailand where he is rescued by a monk. In the monk he recovers and wakes up to see that he has lost one of his arms. Ten years in the monastery and with a new name - Monk Namche he lands up in Brazil to set up a Vipassana Centre. On the flight he is enamoured by a beautiful model Lara.

Once the centre is built he obtains permission to leave the monastery. He walks through the streets of Rio de Janerio, finally reaching a slum. Here walks in to a restaurant where some folks are sitting and drinking beer. Suddenly he notices a person about to fire a gun from the road. Namche protects the person who is targeted. He is none other than Marco a local don and cocaine distributor. Marco provides a roof and a new identity to Nick.

The story goes through many twists and turns tracking the ups and downs of Nick's life. He undergoes many more adventures, which I do not intend to reveal here.

The book just costs Rs. 99 and has great potential for conversion as a film.

The book is a powerful punch on the Chetan Bhagat School of Writing.