Sivaji - Timepass

Three words would summarize the experience:

Si Va Ji
Va Yi Le
Ji Le Bi

Just like jilebi isn't the studdest of sweets, Sivaji is also not the best Rajni movie. But its still timepass enough.

Btw, Rajni is getting old. He looks sad at times in the intro song unable to move around with the usual alacrity. One more movie max and he should retire. Probably Sulthan, the cartoon based on him, can take over. Will be truly ageless.

It is mostly a Rajni movie and very less a Shankar one. All Shankar does is waste the producer's money. The movie could have been shot at a fraction of the budget and still have been just as good. In turn he ends up making low budget movies that become major hits. Clever guy. Shankar also has a problem with choosing heroines. Only Indian and Jeans have had good looking heroines. All the others including Shriya here have been very ordinary.

Another almost aimless drive

It had been quite some time since I went on a long drive on my bike. So I decided rain or shine, I would go somewhere this weekend. Despite having been in Bangalore for more than three years, I still hadn't visited Mysore and Srirangapatna. It was time to correct this aberration on my resume, so it would be Srirangapatna. Given that there are only a couple of forts/palaces/mosques and one temple to visit, starting around 8 from home would be enough to return by 7.

So I started off. Decided to take the BMIC expressway out of the city. Caught it on Hosur Road. But just a little before Gottigere on Bannerghatta Road, thanks to some land allotment issue, this expressway suddenly stops. Had to do a little searching around to find the continuation of the road. No issues after this though. The road is pretty nice. (sorry, couldn't avoid the pun) But I don't understand why someone would pay to take this road to Mysore, when the existing State Highway itself is already four laned and in pretty good shape.

Breakfast was at Maddur. One plate Maddur vadas and a plate idly vada. Due to the Sunday rush, sambar was over, so had to have idly vada with sagu. As I was having breakfast, the dark clouds that loomed threateningly over since I started finally acted. It started drizzling. As a result I chose to take the route that I thought took me away from the rain, back towards Bangalore.

Somewhere between Doddamallur and Maddur, there is an anonymous arch adorned with an idol of Lakshmi Narasimha. I decided to check out this road that obviously had a temple. The road kept deteriorating as I went. It went past a village that had a Kali temple. A little after that, there was an untarred road that diverged and in the corner stood a very missable board indicating that the Narasimha temple was 3km along this untarred road.

I am sure this road was never laid.(tempting to add "me" and "like" somewhere in this sentence, but I refrain) Just a combination of mud and stones and wild growth on the sides, a jungle it was. In the rain, the stones seemed more confidence inducing that the mud. Initially the road climbed, then it was pretty much on the same level. A km or two this continued.

The suddenly out of nowhere, a concrete road sprang up. And I was also climbing a hill rapidly. At the end of the road, on the hill was a small, really small Narasimha temple, showing Narasimha coming out of the Stambha. I learnt from the Bhattar there that this place was called Karunagiri (google later told me it was Kurunagere) One archana, some curd rice and some photos later, I left the temple and returned back.

Cricket in the Vernacular

Sun TV has been trying to replicate the Microsoft strategy. Some product in the market that seems to be a winner, take it, repackage it and make more money out of it. Examples, Kalakkapovadhu yaaru became Asathapovadhu Yaaru, Koffee with Anu tried to become that give up Gouthami show, etc. Now its trying the same thing with cricket coverage. I guess Raj's trial with the Bangladesh series was a success (probably more so because Neo wasn't shown) and as a result Sun has got the rights for all the matches that are shown on Neo for the year.

And unlike Raj, Sun has useless channels that no one watches in all its languages, the News ones. So Sun News will show the matches with Tam commentary, Gemini news with Gult and Udaya News with Dig. Not sure if the matches are shown in Mallu. Also read that Neo has allowed Sab to show cricket with Hindi commentary.

This mass regional selling must have happened because of the Government's brainless bill to force telecasters to share feed with DD. And hence, this is a way for Neo to make up for some lost money. But this is something that should have happened a long time back.

Afterall who cares about Neo's English commentary?

Just to keep the blog updated

Completion of a year at work also means that I have to work to earn the money that I am being paid. And work hard too.

Without football, weekends are very boring. Sunday evenings after people visiting me have left are even more painfully boring. F1 is boring, the top runners have forgotten how to close down large gaps and even attempt to overtake. Moto GP is infinitely better. Canada was interesting only because of the crashes. The only respite from sporting boredom in the coming months will be India's tour to England. Should be a closely fought series, as bowling wise we are totally equally matched, both just can't get Chanderpaul out.

On weekdays, there is not enough time to get bored though. Anyways need to start making the road trips.

Sometime back, I had embarked on a quest of seeing historically accurate TV series' on Rome. This used to be my pre-nap ritual. In the process finished Rome's second season. Then saw a docu-drama by BBC and Discovery about 6 events and people that changed Rome. Then downloaded Robert Graves' "I, Claudius", a TV series shot in the 1970s. Currently bored of this too. Still have a couple of episodes to watch. But I guess I will buy the book soon. And also have to pick up Suetonius' "Twelve Caesars" when I go home next.

Speaking of books, I have resumed pre-nap book reading. Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony is boring. Almost no Mulch Diggums and Foaly, replace them with a couple of boring demons, introduce a female genius, but then show her to be dumb, Eoin Colfer has almost lost it. Just another disappointing sequel like Shrek 3, the only sequel I have watched this summer. Spidey, POC and Ocean's Thirteen have been well left.

Chennai 28 is pretty entertaining, Naan Avan Illai is enough timepass. But just can't wait to catch Sivaji. Cheap PVR is not selling Sivaji tickets online. And I don't have the enthu to go put fight at a theatre. My time will surely come, who can avoid the inevitable.

One year

I complete a year at my first job today. Not bad at all.