No Change

The bus ticket fare between Kanchipuram and Chengalpattu is Rs.11/- The fare is same for long years at least since I started traveling between Kanchi and Chengai.

So Whats the big deal in it?

I don't know who coined this fare '11'. Yeah I know that it is based on the number of kilometers. But the authorities should have thought about this before deciding. There are commuters who don't have change (coins). Passengers giving Rs.20/- and conductor shouting at them is an usual happening in this route. We can't blame the conductor too. He has to give Rs.9/- back which is a huge amount in coins. Neither can we blame passengers who are new to that route.

So I am not asking to hike the fare to highest round number. Why don't the transport corporation make that fare as Rs.10/- and may be increase the fare of some other route which has fare of Rs.14/- to Rs.15/-. After all, it is convenient for everyone.

This post may sound stupid and silly.

But this is common man's grievance.

MRP - Minimum Retail Price

The real expansion of MRP may be Maximum Retail Price but from end consumer perspective, it is minimum retail price. We don't get an option to buy most of the products at a price lesser than MRP.

But there are instances when we buy a product paying more than MRP. That is why I call it Minimum Retail Price.

We have seen cool drinks and other eatables sold out a higher price than MRP in hill stations. I find some genuineness in that (though it is also illegal). But the atrocity happening in bus stands is too much.

Today, while I was coming to home from Bangalore, I went to a shop in Hosur bus stand and asked for 1/2 litre Pepsi. 'Rs.20' was printed in big letters on the bottle cover. But the shop keeper asked me Rs.24/- I asked why? He said that it is the price in all bus stands. I was shocked to hear it. He added " Buy if you want or vacate the place".

Neither I had guts to fight with him nor I had time since the bus was about to start. I still consoled myself that the scenario is only in Hosur because it is border. But the same scenario in Vellore bus stand too. So I had to buy it without questioning.

It is the bus stand retailers who are exploiting customers' impatience or the bus stand retailers are exploited by some one (should I say who?) and in turn it adds to the burden of customer?

I don't know but it is we who are suffering at last. We don't have time or motivation to step into sales tax office and complain. Neither are we sure whether any action will be taken. Who knows? They may be the ones who are exploiting the retailers.

Now comes the necessity for an online complaint registration website run by government which will accept complaints about anything in the country and take prompt action. Is there any?

Hoof. I have poured out all my grievance at least here :)

We Indians have practiced to live with whatever is there.

I will leave this issue after writing and you will leave this issue after reading.

Long Live India!

Dream Comes False

If there is a phrase "Dream Comes True" why not "Dream Comes False" ? All of us dream of something and most of them don't happen. We regularly lose something at some point of time. Do we die for that? We have practiced to live with what we get. Sometimes failures and sorrows give a kind of peacefulness to us.

"What happened to you Karthik? Turned philosophical???"

The song which I am going to discuss made me speak like this.

It is 'Kanavu Kaanum Vaazhkai' from the film 'Neengal Kaettavai'

Those were days when I started claiming myself as a die-hard Ilayaraja fan and if some one asked me "What is your favourite song?” my reply will be this song. I would hear it repeatedly for days together.

Ilayaraja's music, Yesudas voice, Balumahendra's picturisation and brilliant lyrics together have made this song a master-piece.

Is there any other piece like the second interlude of this song which can console minds with sorrow? This is why Ilayaraja’s music is part of us.

I am a kind of listener who don’t pay much attention to lyrics. But there are few songs which force me hear the lyrics. This is one such song.

Some of the lines which I admire are

துடுப்பு கூட பாரம் என்று

கரையை தேடும் ஓடங்கள்

உடம்பு என்பது உண்மையில் என்ன?

கனவுகள் வாங்கும் பை தானே

பேதை மனிதனே கடமையை இன்றே

செய்வதில் தானே ஆனந்தம்

Don’t worry if Dream Don’t Come True.

We have Ilayaraja’s music to console us.

Download Link

http://www.4shared.com/file/58589679/550055f/kanavu_kanum.html

The video is must-watch

Mantralayam - Hampi - Tungabadra Dam

Myself and Balakrishnan are default when it comes to roaming around. This time Anenth joined us.

We three decided to book a 2 day package tour to Mantralayam, Hampi and Tungabadra dam (also called as T.B Dam) organised by Karnataka tourism.

For more details about the package : http://karnatakaholidays.net/Html_Version/mantralaya.htm

Because it is a package tour, there were lot of comforts and everything was well planned. On the other side we didn't explore much regarding routes unlike other tours.


July 17th '09 - Frida

We started from electronic city at 5PM though the tour bus was planned to start from Badami house only at 8PM. Bala's skepticism of weekend traffic failed. We reached Badami house at 6:30PM itself. So we took a walk to SP road and killed time by going to each and every shop asking for rate of some electronic item. Then we had dinner at Adiga's.

The bus started at 8:30 PM (Indian Punctuality). It was a 30 seater non A/C bus and all the seats were full.



July 18th '09 - Saturday

We reached Mantralayam at 5:40 AM. We were given a room in AP tourism lodge for taking bath and getting ready for dharshan. (FYI, Mantralayam is in Kurnool district of AP. All the places we went are near Andhra-Karnataka border)

We started to Raghavendra temple at 8:30 PM. The temple had less crowd. Gents have to remove their shirts (banian too! [:)]) We were told that there was a special queue for people with dhothi. So we bought dhothi. After dharshan was over, we were taken to tungabadra river. There was not much of water. You will know the reason in later stage of this post.

There is a big dining hall run by devasthanam which was donated by Mrs. Narayanamurthy. It was Ekadasi. Unfortunately no food :( So we had our breakfast in a hotel and started to Hospet. After this, the day was full of travel. We went to a small Hanuman temple on the way.

The main highlight of the travel was Rajinikanth. The guide decided to put a film. So he gave some options to the tourists and asked us to choose a film. Shivaji was one in the option. Only we 3 were tamilians and all others were Kannadigas. So we just shut our mouth. To our surprise many told 'Shivaji'. Oh man! This shows the popularity of Rajinikanth! All of us enjoyed the movie.

We reached hotel near T.B Dam (Now we are in Karnataka) run by Karnataka tourism at 7:00 PM. There was a garden opposite to the hotel. We spent some time there and had our dinner in PROJECT restaurant. I don't know why they named it so. But we 3 were not happy with the name :)

July 19th '09 - Sunday

This was the day of tour. We started from room at 8:00 AM and reached Hampi at 9:30 AM. We stopped for breakfast in between.

Hampi is the former capital of Vijayanagara Empire. It was ruined by sultan invaders in 16th century. Ruins of Hampi are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I don't know whether to appreciate the Vijayanagara emperors for their brilliant architectural works or curse the sultans for ruining them. The monuments were awesome. We took hundreds of pic there at Hampi and even then we felt like missing something. That place is full of monuments. See this song from a Tamil film 'Mounam Pesiadhe'. The entire song is taken at Hampi.





Hampi is also known for its hot temperature. It seems, the maximum crosses 45 degree celcius. We were fortunate that it was cloudy on that day. Otherwise we would have become 'Non-Veg Fries' in that place full of rocks :)

We enjoyed Hampi visit to the fullest. We left Hampi at 5PM and went to T.B Dam. There are buses operating between T.B Dam Garden entrance and a hillock near dam for Rs. 20/-. We can have a bird's eye view of T.B Dam and the beautiful garden from the top of hillock.



Now look at the pic. Water like an ocean on one side and few buckets of water on the other side. It shows why Tungabadra river hardly had water in Mantralayam (Andhrapradesh). Karnataka is not giving water to any one be it Cauvery to TN or Tungabadra to AP. Just kidding. Each state has its own reasons. It is not a political post either :)
The musical fountain in T.B Dam garden was nice, though not as great as Brindavan gardens, Mysore.


We started from T.B Dam at 9PM and reached bangalore at 5:30AM on July 20th '09.

I will finish this post with an interesting incident that happened in our return travel. While returning, the guide asked us to perform something. Bala and Anenth shouted my name. I was forced to sing a song. I proudly (with little self esteem) introduced myself as a MTech student in IIITB and then sung. I emphasized the word 'MTech' and tried to pose myself as a great person doing something great. Later a girl came and and she sung beautifully. She introduced herself politely as doing Electrical Engineering in IIT-Madras!!!! Shock No 1!!! Then a guy who was looking very ordinary and short came. He introduced himself as Scientist in NAL. Schock No 2!!!

I told myself. "Karthik, Don't think too much of yourself " :)

Email forwarding to a single account

I hope most of you know about the option of forwarding all your mails to a single account so that you keep track of all your mail ids without logging into each account

If so, this post is not for you.

You can automatically forward a mail from any of your account to another. These are the steps.

For gmail users:

1. Click the settings tab on right hand side of your mail page top.
2. There you will find 'Forwarding and POP/IMAP' tab.
3. Select the 'Forward a copy of incoming mail to..' radio button and enter the mail id which you check regularly.
4. It is better to select 'Keep ____ mail's copy in inbox'

For yahoomail users:

Instead of 'settings', you will have 'options' tab and instead of 'Forwarding and POP/IMAP', here it is 'POP and forwarding' :)
One more thing i observed is that a copy of your mail will not be kept in yahoo account unlike gmail. It will be moved to the ID which u r forwarding to.

I haven't tried with other mail service providers.

I will be happy if atleast one get educated by this mail.

Technology experts can add more if i have missed any or please correct me if i had gone somewhere.

Nadodigal - Movie Review

This is not a conventional movie review. Please go through the following links for exhaustive review.

1. http://www.sivajitv.com/movie-review/nadodigal-movie-review.htm

2. http://www.tamilnow.com/magazine/nadodigal-review-245.html


I would wish to share some of my thoughts about this film

• Sasikumar: Great going. He has suceeded as director (Subramaniyapuram), producer(Pasanga) and actor (Subramaniyapuram, Nadodigal). Oh man! You have created a lot of expectations. We will be expecting more from you in the next ventures.
  

• Ananya : She is Sasikumar's lover. The director might have expected her to act cute. But she has acted more than what is expected . Over-acting.

• Abhinaya : She is Sasikumar's sister. I was surprised to know that she is physically disabled (deaf and mute). She has done a great job and is beautiful too. No lip sync problem. No one would even believe this. Kudos to director for the challenge he took and thanks for not trying to advertise this.

• Vijay (Vasanth & Co) : There was a big digital banner for him in Manjunatha theatre, Hosur. Yes, he has acted well. But banner lam romba over. Appa kaasa kari aakkadheenga Vijay!

• Bharani : He is the prime-comedian. The scenes where he loses his hearing power really makes us feel sympathetic. But konjam over-acting.
  

• Ganja Karuppu : Short and sweet role. He has given 100% output.

• Sundar C Babu (Music) : Songs are not upto the mark. Sambo Siva Sambo theme is the backbone of film. He need not give grand orchestrated music for all scenes. First half had lot of unnecessary background music.

• Samuthrakani (Director) : He takes the whole credit. What a movie! A great try and it is well-executed. Audience will surely encourage if you try movies like this. But you need not have put these songs. They stopped the flow. May be, one good melody(like kangal iranda) would have been sufficient.
  

• All reviews say that the second half is slow. According to me, 2nd half is the essence of film. The explanation regarding initial marriage life, failure of love and arranged marriages, betrayal by friends etc are great. Hats off for those scenes.

All together, Nadodigal is a must watch movie. See it with your friends or family or even alone. It suits all type of audience.

Bangalore - Tiruttani - Bangalore

I planned to write this post a week before but got postponed.

One who is interested to know only about the travel to temple can skip the following paragraphs and straight away read "Tiruttani Temple" paragraph.

I had been to Tiruttani to attend marriage of my friend Ragu's sister.

FYI, Tiruttani hill temple is one of the six abodes of Lord Muruga (Arupadai Veedu). It is a famous tourist spot.

Marriage on june 23rd and reception on june 24th. I didn't have any class on June 23rd. But i had class on june 24th afternoon. So my plan was to attend the reception on 23rd, stay that night there in Tiruttani and start back to Bangalore on 25th early morning.

If i had the guts to bunk the classes on 25th, 26th and 27th, i would have gone to my hometown Chengalpattu from Tiruttani straight away. Chengalpattu is just 2 1/2 hours journey from Tiruttani. But what to do? I am a sincere student :P


There are 2 routes, one through Vellore and other through Chittor as shown in the map. I preferred the Vellore route(green) for the simple reason that it stretches completely through Tamilnadu. And i also heard that there are not many buses between Chittor and Tiruttani. I have another favor in Vellore route. I need not go to majestic. I shall just board bus in electronic city. That will save even more time.

E-City To Vellore

So having decided the route, i started at 10:30 AM on 24th june. What a surprise! A bus which goes directly to Tiruttani came. I never thought there was a bus between Bangalore and Tiruttani. Even if there is one, this should be the only bus to Tiruttani from Bangalore. Anyway, i took ticket only till Vellore since i planned to take lunch in Vellore.

The bus reached Vellore by 2:00 PM. The driver was too good. He utilised the smooth highway to the maximum unlike other bus drivers. May be, the the bus condition was good. 140+ kms in 3:30 hours with a 10 min break in between at Krishnagiri is perfect. Thanks Driver!

I had lunch in the hotel present at Vellore bus stand.

Vellore To Tiruttani

How can a travel be completely smooth? This time, it is a private bus which spoiled the show. There were govt. buses for Tiruttani but none was ready to go. Only a private bus (Lakshmi Devi Transport) was ready and the board said that it goes to Tiruttani. I asked the guy who was shouting " Sholingar Arakkonam Sholingar Arakkonam" (these are the places in the Vellore-Tiruttani route. look at the map) whether the bus goes to Tiruttani. The guy asked me to get in. The bus was horrible. It vibrated like anything. Probably, this is the worst maintained bus i had ever gone. The bus was going in highway but it appeared like it was going in a poorly maintained SH road.

I asked for a ticket to Tiruttani. The conductor said that the bus does not go till Tiruttani and it stops at Arakkonam. He advised (yes, he advised) me to take a ticket to Arakkonam and get a bus to Tiruttani from there. Something striked me. I took ticket only till Sholingar. Sholingar is a place before Arakkonam. Look at the map.

That 2 hour of travel from Vellore to Sholingar was horrible. Bus stopped in all places. The driver seldom went to top gear. Every tree was a bus stop. I got down at Sholingar and waited for Tiruttani bus for some time. Atlast i boarded a govt. bus to Tiruttani which was coming from Vellore. I would have better waited in Vellore itself and boarded that bus.

The bus didn't go through Arakkonam. Then only i realised that the route through Arakkonam is longer. Without even knowing this, i didn't take a ticket to Arakkonam. Something good in bad!

I reached Tiruttani at 5PM.

Tiruttani Temple

Devastanam operates bus between hill foot and temple. Bus starts from Devastanam cottage which is near Tiruttani bus stand. O one bus is shuttling up and down. The bus starts only when it gets almost filled. So if you are reluctant to climb on your own, you should be prepared to wait till the bus get filled. It seems, it will take 30 mins to climb up by walk. Bus ticket is Rs.10/- for up and down together.



The climate was cool on the hill. The crowd was relatively lesser. The general queue was stopped since some Abhishekam was going on for the deity. I was informed that those who have special entrance ticket will be allowed inside. The ticket cost was Rs.25/-. I bought it and went in.

After the dharshan was over, i relaxed for some time enjoying the sceneries and pleasant breeze. I came out and a bus was ready to go down.



Reception

I reached SS Mahal at 7PM. My friends were slowly streaming in. We had dinner and a room was booked in Devasthanam lodge. Some friends started from Chennai only at 10PM and they reached Tiruttani by 1AM (25th June). One or the other were constantly banging the cottage door. So i didn't sleep well. But we friends had a great time. All of them are ones who did BE with me.

Tiruttani - Bangalore

I woke up at 4AM and got ready. Boarded a Vellore bus at 5AM in Tiruttani bus stand. It was a pleasant experience to travel during early morning. All the villages on the way were active even in that early morning. Completely contrary when compared to Bangalore which wakes up only at 9AM. :)

Had Msal Dosa at Vellore (Ver Bad) and boarded a Bangalore bus to Vellore.

I slept during the entire Vellore-Bangalore travel.

Though it was a short 1 1/2 day trip, it gave a lot of experience.

I wish to tell you an incident.

In Valajapet bus stand, 2 children were doing some jimmics with a stick and were begging. One girl was dancing. I am not going to tell any dialogue or suggest a solution to avoid beggary or child exploitation.

I usually don't encourage beggary. But i can't stop myself from feeling some pain after seeing those kids. I threw away 1 rupee out of the bus window!

Nannavanu - Music Review

This is a newly released Kannada album.

Music: Ilayaraja

I wish to discuss about 2 songs from this film

1. Hey Mamu

The music director of this song is 66 years old. Will any one believe?

Did Yuvan compose and gave to Ilayaraja? This is what a lay-man who don't know about Ilayaraja will ask.

But fans of Ilayaraja know how young he is.

How enjoyable the recording studio would have been while recording! Ilayaraja should have nearly danced while teaching the song to singers and orchestra. Smile should have filled his face. It would have been a treat if we had been in studio that time. We would have seen a different Ilayaraja.

The song is completely packed.

I should mention about the first interlude. Very different sound. The interlude ends in a unconventional way. We ll never expect the charanam to start that time but IR did that. There should be some special carnatic aspect in the note at which charanam is started.

Charanam starts normally with the drums rhythm which is used throughout the song. Suddenly drums stop and just 'jal jal' sound and bass guitar accompanies voice. The melody flavor of Ilayaraja! Again the gears are shifted up. The last 2 lines of charanam are wonderful. It brilliantly gives lead to 'Hey Mamu'. Only Isaignani can do such wonders.

2. Modalane

A song which is 180 degree out of phase with the previous one.

A melody number and Ilayaraja is the king of melodies. Kekkava Venum?

SPB is the male singer and his voice is fresh like 80s. Kekkava venum?

Prelude: Starting with Piano, the humming by Bela Shande gives a good start. I am reminded of 'vaanaville vaanaville' from Ramana for no reason.

Pallavi: Clear tune. After hearing pallavi, we are sure that it is going to be a great song.

First Interlude: Oh Man! Violin and flute are blended so well that we get a new sound. So melodious!

Charanam: Vandhuttar pa SPB. Even if a tune is somewhat shaky, SPB can balance it with his soothing voice. Now he has got a crystal clear tune. SPB took it one step higher and made it even melodious.

The 2nd and 3rd lines of charanam ends with violin accompaniment. Wow! This is the grammar for Improvisation.

The way SPB ends first charanam is great!

Second Interlude: Ilayaraja is not outdated. Hear the sound man! I beg you all to hear atleast this interlude with earphones.

According to me, This is the best song which has come so far in 2009