Overdose

No - this is not the title of Robin Cook's novel !

I always was a cricket fan. Of late however, my interest levels have come down. I am not even aware of the different teams playing the Champion T20 league this week. Many of my colleagues in office have also realised that their interests are also waning. The reasons are two fold:

1) The advent of T-20 has made one feel that One day cricket is boring and slow (especially in the middle overs)

2) Overdose of cricket. We just had the one day competition (Champion's trophy) , a week later we have the "Diwali hogi cup-wali !" T-20 championship.

The way things are progressing, the officials will manage to successfully kill the market for the sport.

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali ! May the festival of lights bring love and prosperity to all.

Linked In !

Though I have joined social networking sites in the past, I never really have been active on any of them.

The past few weeks, I have been hooked on to the magic of linkedin and have been busy finding past colleagues, associates and classmates.

The most pleasing moment was when I got back in touch with my boss from 1994. The last time we spoke was in 1998, lost complete contact after that. I had made just one search for the person and hit bulls eye with the first result. Got the reply in hours and soon we were up to speed on each other's progress on the ladder of the corporate world.

Incidentally the next evening while driving back home from work, I was listening to some old Kenny Rogers hits - these used to be on my favourite list during the 1994 period. The choice of CD was not by design but by chance. This was the trigger for some bitter-sweet memories of my Delhi days.

Removed the F1 bits from this blog

By popular demand (1 reader's wishes !) I am removing the entires with F1 as the topic of interest. The link for my spanking new F1 blog is http://f1tvm.wordpress.com/ The chellakili blog will be essentially for Trivandrum, IT etc......as the by-line above states - "just about anything that catches my eye"

Messiah

Today is Gandhi Jayanthi. The man who (in his unique non violent way) galvanised an entire nation in its struggle for independence was born this day 140 years ago.

Whilst today most Indians (especially the political class) pay lip service to Gandhiji’s ideals and beliefs, almost all of us have been in awe of the man and his life (at least in our youth) at some point in our lives

Two memories spring to mind today. The first memory is from 1989 which was when I visited Gandhi Smrithi (located in Birla house where Gandhiji became a martyr) for the first time. Having seen the small museum at Birla house, we were led to the spot where Gandhiji was martyred. Displayed there was a brief yet powerful quotation from the other great man of the 20th century - Albert Einstein “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”. Standing at the spot and reading this, any Indian (or for that matter any human) would get a lump in his/her throat.

The second memory is of a Doordarshan public message that used to be frequently played (in the eighties?). It was a short ad which featured an animated caricature of Gandhiji and ended with a voice over (with a deep base) stating “The greatness of this man was in his simplicity”. This simple message was very effective and yet provoking.

We have progressed a lot on many fronts in the six decades since Gandhiji’s demise. Yet in these days of violence and hatred, the man and his message are relevant more than ever.

Many a time we feel we could do with another Gandhi, another messiah.

Yet we know that there never was one like him in the past and probably never will be too. Let us pay our respect / homage to him by applying his message of tolerance, love and duty in our insignificant lives.

Sudden Impact !

Earlier this evening, a small quake was felt around the Kazhakutam area.

It was so mild that I was in office and did not even realize what had happened. I felt (heard ?) something and guessed it was thunder (it was raining at the time). Later some folks reported it was a earthquake.

Small groups got together and discussed for a couple of minutes (referred to the breaking news on the Mathrubhumi web site) and then it was back to their respective desks and BAU (Business As Usual) !

A little bit of excitement on a Friday evening just before the weekend break !

Decent parties - Super hit block buster chalachitram ?

Have you ever wondered why every movie telecast on the Malayalam Television channels on weekends / primetime is always advertised as a super hit block buster movie?

The immediate provocation for this thought is something interesting that happened to us last weekend. We (wife, kid and self) had been to see a movie called "Decent Parties" starring Jagadish. In case you are wondering, the primary reason for narrowing down on this choice of movie was ease of parking in the theatre concerned! Also a couple of friends had indicated that Bhramaram (the competing choice) would be too scary for our daughter Nandu.

Arriving at the theatre (after leisurely parking the vehicle) I was pleasantly surprised to meet a friend (with family). Good I thought - they also favoured "Decent parties" - this ought to be a decent movie with some decent laughs at the least. However not too many Trivandrum-wasis seemed to share our opinion - there were only around two dozen folks in the hall when the show started. And the public opinion seemed to be right - the movie moved along at a laboured leisurely pace (like a TV serial) and soon half the people were dozing off.

Soon after the interval, the screen went blank - and stayed blank for over 10 ... 15 minutes. We were not sure whether we should feel irritated or relieved. Just as we were contemplating trooping off, the usher came in and asked everyone to move to the sister theatre where the rest of the movie would be shown. Half of the audience that had dozed off moved to the other theatre in search of better seats to settle in. The other half that had stayed awake decided to leave. We were in the latter category. Money lost, yet wiser for the lesson learnt we rushed back home!

I am sure that this movie is a candidate for a Super hit block buster chalachitram (movie) for Television in the coming months!